Serum cholesterol in bulimia nervosa

Objective: The purpose of this retrospective study was to replicate and to extend previous work indicating that bulimia nervosa is associated with ele vated serum levels of cholesterol and to examine the association between ch olesterol and other clinical and serum measures. Methods: Clinical characte ristics and laboratory data including nonfasting cholesterol and thyroid in dices were collected from charts of 119 women with bulimia nervosa and 42 f emale controls. Results: There was no significant difference between the tw o groups in mean age or body mass index. The mean serum cholesterol level o f the patient group was statistically significantly greater than that of th e control group (patients: 194 +/- 36 mg/dl; controls: 176 +/- 34 mg/dl; t = 2.77; df = 159; p = .006). The mean calculated free T4 of the bulimia ner vosa patient group was statistically lower than that of the control group ( patients: 1.89 +/- 0.32; controls: 2.09 +/- 0.26; t = 2.86; df = 141; p = . 005). There was no correlation between calculated free T4 and serum cholest erol within the combined group (r = .04, p > .5, N = 143) or within the pat ient group (r = .08, p > .3, N = 118). Conclusions: The average serum level of cholesterol is elevated in the patients with bulimia nervosa. The mecha nism for and the consequences of this abnormality are uncertain. (C) 2001 b y John Wiley & Sons, Inc.