Psychopathology in obese subjects with and without binge-eating disorder and in bulimic subjects

The present study was conducted with three groups of 15 subjects each, obese subjects diagnosed with Binge Eating Disorder, obese subjects without diagnosis of Binge Eating Disorder, and bulimic subjects. The aim was to compare the three groups on a battery of self-administered tests for psychodiagnostic screening. Analysis showed a clear pattern: patients with bulimia nervosa had higher pathological scores in the specific area of eating disorders than did obese patients, whereas patients with Binge Eating Disorder tended to score lower than patients with bulimia nervosa and higher than did the obese patients. This general pattern is very similar to the findings recently reported in the literature and suggests the adoption of a clinical approach which takes into account the different characteristics of the three groups.