title: Secret patterns: validation of a screening tool to detect bulimia.
abstract: We prospectively validated a two-item screening tool for bulimia. Subjects recruited from a women's health practice completed the previously developed two-item screening tool ("Do you ever eat in secret?" and "Are you satisfied with your eating patterns?") at their initial office visit. This was validated against a telephone interview with a licensed psychologist. The prevalence of current bulimia was 16% in 75 subjects, determined by psychologists' assessment (sensitivity 75%, specificity 49%) and 4% by DSM-III-R criteria. The positive and negative predictive values of one screening question positive were 22% and 91%, respectively, when compared with the psychologists' assessments as the gold standard. This screening tool allows physicians to identify patients who warrant further valuation for bulimia.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, Boston Medical Center, Massachusetts 02118-2334, USA.
authors.forename: K M
authors.initials: KM
authors.lastname: Freund
authors.forename: R D
authors.initials: RD
authors.lastname: Boss
authors.forename: E K
authors.initials: EK
authors.lastname: Handleman
authors.forename: A D
authors.initials: AD
authors.lastname: Smith
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D002032:Bulimia / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology; D005247:Feeding Behavior; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008403:Mass Screening; D008404:Massachusetts / Q000453:epidemiology; D011320:Primary Health Care; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires