Bulimia: an entity in search of definition

A review of research literature that addresses personality correlates of bulimia revealed a major problem which affects that research and its interpretation: Criteria used to define this disorder have not been consistent across investigators. A related issue is that this disorder has been described by a variety of names, such as dietary chaos syndrome, binge-eating syndrome, bulimia nervosa, etc. The second major problem that contributes to the uncertainty about the personality of bulimics is methodology. Among these have been the inclusion of individuals with a history of anorexia nervosa, the use of researcher-specific self-reports and questionnaires (primarily within a narrow population), and a lack of consistency in the testing measures used to assess personality. This very basic issue needs to be resolved if the findings in bulimia research are to be cumulative and generalizable across studies. Suggestions are offered as to how this resolution should occur.