A quantitative study of body-related attitudes in patients with anorexia and bulimia nervosa

The Ben-Tovim Walker Body Attitudes Questionnaire (BAQ) is a psychometrically sound self-report instrument for assessing women's attitudes towards their own bodies. The BAQ responses of a large sample of patients with eating disorders (ED) diagnosed in accordance with DSM-III-R criteria were compared with those from a normative population and from diverse groups of psychiatrically and physically ill patients. The ED group was distinct, and showed extreme responses in the area of weight and shape concerns. But a better discrimination between the ED and other populations was achieved using subscales that related to 'body disparagement' (an intense loathing of the body) and 'attractiveness', rather than to weight and shape concerns. ED patients may have a more pervasive disturbance in body-related attitudes than is currently widely accepted. Patients with anorexia and bulimia nervosa showed very similar attitudes despite the symptomatic differences between the groups.