Characteristics of bulimic women with and without alcohol abuse

We compared the characteristics of hospitalized women with bulimia nervosa alone (N = 19) and with bulimia nervosa plus alcohol abuse (N = 13) using standard measures of depression, eating disorders, general psychiatric symptomatology, and temperament. Bulimic women with alcohol abuse had significantly higher lowest past weight, but did not differ from women with bulimia alone on age, age of onset of bulimia, current weight, and highest past weight. There were no differences in clinical symptoms of bulimia, depression, or general psychiatric symptomatology. On Cloninger's Tridimensional Personality Questionnaire (TPQ), bulimic women with alcohol abuse scored significantly higher on Total Novelty Seeking, on the Novelty Seeking Subscale Disorderliness, and on the Reward Dependence Subscale Attachment. Implications for understanding the relation between bulimia and substance abuse are discussed.