Abstaining and bulemic anorexics. Two sides of the same coin

This article presents a psychodynamic approach to the understanding and treatment of abstaining and bulemic anorexics. While the abstainer starves herself to the point of emaciation and the bulemic may gorge to the point of obesity, the underlying emotional conflicts of the two groups of patients are the same. The ego (character structure) of the bulemic is not as perfectionistic and rigid as that of the abstainer, so the patient is periodically overwhelmed not only by impulses to gorge but also by impulses of all kinds. A description of the clinical syndrome, the physiological findings and details of the laboratory diagnosis of anorexia nervosa are provided. Family psychodynamics which are viewed as etiologic are presented. A psychodynamic therapeutic approach is described and examples of the treatment of an abstaining and bulemic patient are detailed. The crucial therapeutic role of the family physician is explored with emphasis on the importance of the physician's encouraging the patient to bring up questions about food and eating with the psychiatrist because such preoccupations mask other conflicts.