Speed of eating as a determinant of bulimic desire to vomit: a controlled study

Studies of self-induced vomiting of retarded persons have found that the rate of eating and the amount eaten alter this problem. The present study attempted to determine whether this same relation was exhibited by the nonretarded bulimic. A nonretarded bulimic woman provided her subjective ratings of her desire to vomit after eating her taboo foods at a fast versus slowed versus normal rate using a within participant experimental design. The desire to vomit was found to be near absent after the slowed eating of the taboo foods but was at a high level that endured after the rapid or normal eating. These results suggest a neglected determinant of adult bulimia that may be used in clinical treatment, pending confirmation by a larger sample with measures of actual vomiting as was previously evidenced by the inpatient retarded vomiters.