An empirical assessment of bulimic patients using multiple measures

This paper examines personality and clinical assessment data from bulimic patients and from a control group of normal volunteer subjects. Thirty-eight bulimic females representing consecutive admissions to an outpatient treatment program were administered a battery of tests including the MMPI, FIRO-B, Beck Depression Inventory, Moos Family Environment Scale, Bem Sex Role Inventory, and Conte Borderline Syndrome Index. Twenty-six normal females also completed this testing battery. As expected, bulimics differed from normals on several clinical scales, including the MMPI, Beck Depression Inventory, and Conte Borderline Syndrome Index. More importantly, however, were the results of the cluster analysis of the bulimic MMPI scores which demonstrated two clearly defined subtypes of bulimia: a mildly disturbed group that shows developmental conflicts and adjustment difficulties, and a severely disturbed group that displays low ego strength and characteristics suggesting an Axis II personality disturbance. The other testing measures failed to reach significance levels. Implications for assessment and treatment are explored in the context of these results.