Substance Misuse Among Women with Eating Disorders

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Substance Misuse Among Women with Eating Disorders Research on eating disorders has revealed a greater incidence of substance use and/or misuse in women with eating disorders than in the general population. Most of the research agrees that substance misuse is more common in patients with bulimia nervosa and the binge eating/purging subtype of patients with anorexia than in women with the restricting subtype of anorexia nervosa. Researchers and specialists have proposed a range of theories to account for the strong association between substance misuse and bulimia nervosa. Experiments have not provided evidence to conclusively support any one theory. However, studies conducted in the past decade have enabled researchers to refine their hypotheses and accumulate more accurate information about eating disorders and substance use. Researchers have examined personality characteristics, family history, and biological and environmental factors common to persons with both substance use problems and eating disorders. In addition, the onset of eating disorders in relation to the beginning of substance abuse are examined to determine if one disorder drives the other. Differences in characteristics of patients with anorexia nervosa and patients with bulimia nervosa are examined to determine differences in rates of comorbidity with substance abuse. While continued research is necessary to assess the validity of proposed theories, the current knowledge proposes some interesting ideas about the relationship between substance abuse and eating disorders. In the literature on eating disorders and substance abuse there is general agreement on two factors: patients with eating disorders display higher rates of substance abuse problems an... ... middle of paper ... ...ability to Substance Abuse in Eating Disorders. NIDA.159, 269-311. Krahn, D., Piper, D., King, M., Olson, L., Kurth, C., Moberg, D.P. (1996). Dieting in Sixth Grade Predicts Alcohol Use in Ninth Grade. Journal of Substance Abuse. 8, 293-301. Sinha, R., Robinson, J., Merikangas, K., Wilson, G.T., Rodin, J.,& O'Malley, S. (1996). Eating Pathology among Women with Alcoholism and/or Anxiety Disorders. Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research. 20, 1184-91. Striegel-Moore, R., and Huydic, E. (1993). Problem Drinking and Symptoms of Disordered Eating in Female High School Students. International Journal of Eating Disorders. 14, 417-25. Welch, S. and Fairburn, C. (1996). Impulsivity or Comorbidity in Bulimia Nervosa. A Controlled Study of Deliberate Self Harm and Alcohol and Drug Misuse in a Community Sample. British Journal of Psychiatry. 169, 451-8.

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