Binge Eating in Bulimia Nervosa

In our Western society, we have several different types of eating dysfunction, all of which are unique and tragic in their own right. Despite their individuality, however, they all have several overlapping symptoms that are key to their classification and severity. For Bulimia Nervosa (BN) and Binge Eating Disorder (BED), one of the core features is binge eating, which can be defined objectively by number of calories eaten in a given time or subjectively by the feelings of the binger. Binge eating has many different aspects that are of interest to scientists and clinicians alike. One of those interests has to do with the reduction of this symptom among populations being treated for their respective disorder. Because both disorders are relatively new to the scientific and clinical world, there is much debate over how to treat, define, and possibly distinguish this phenomenon between the two disorders. For the purpose of this review, I intended to examine the evidence for the best outcomes, both immediate and long term, for reduction of binge eating in these disorders.

Clinicians treat BN and BED in several different ways, some of which are more effective than others, especially at reducing the core symptom of binge eating. Although many treatments exist, those most researched in terms of treatment outcome are interpersonal therapy (IPT), cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), behavior therapy (BT), and pharmacological therapy. These treatments are not designed to simply treat binge eating; instead, they are used to treat the whole of the disorder. However, by understanding the workings of the therapy and differences in treatment outcomes among core features, science can expand upon its understan...

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