Academy for Eating Disorders International Conference on Eating Disorders. Denver, CO, USA, May 29-31, 2003

The focus of this meeting was the interface between eating disorders and obesity. A symposium at this meeting dealt with advances in treatment for bulimia nervosa (BN) and binge eating disorder. There were two presentations in this symposium that addressed pharmacological treatments. One reviewed drug treatments for BN, which included reviewing the evidence for the efficacy of tricyclic antidepressants, monoamine oxidase inhibitors and selective serotonin inhibitors in the treatment of BN. All drug studies demonstrated greater reduction in binge eating and purging than with placebo. Other medications studied without evidence of efficacy for BN include opiate antagonists, lithium and anticonvulsants. Two promising agents for BN that require further study are odansitron and topiramate. For binge eating disorder, studies have examined the efficacy of antidepressants (tricyclic antidepressants, selective serotonin re-uptake inhibitors and serotonin/noradrenaline re-uptake inhibitors), antiobesity agents (sibutramine) and antiepileptics associated with weight loss (topiramate), with some evidence of efficacy for these agents.