ABSTRACT
Introduction Anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa are closely related disorders characterised by intense concern about body shape and the use of strategies to avoid weight gain. Anorexia nervosa is specifically marked by severe emaciation, and bulimia nervosa is marked by frequent episodes of binge eating (American Psychiatric Association 1980; Russell 1979, 1981). Although current diagnostic systems differentiate the two disorders, the distinction between them is clouded by several features, including (1) the similarities between them, (2) the frequency of binge eating in anorexic patients, (3) the fact that many patients move between the two diagnoses and (4) the difficulty in defining normal weight for an individual (Fairburn and Garner 1986).
