Binge eating and eating attitudes among Nazi concentration camp survivors.
BACKGROUND
Prisoners in Nazi concentration camps lived through extreme situations that included starvation. We test our hypothesis that there is a greater lifetime presence of binge eating among survivors from concentration camps than in a control group.


METHODS
The subjects were 51 political prisoners who survived Nazi concentration camps and 47 ex-partisans of similar age and sex. A clinical interview investigated the lifetime occurrence of binge eating. The Eating Attitudes Test was also administered.


RESULTS
The mean reported loss of weight among survivors was 27-3 kg. Thirty-three per cent of them and 4% of the ex-partisans reported going on eating binges at some time in their lives (P < 0.0007). There was no significant difference in the Eating Attitudes Test scores of survivors and ex-partisans, but, among survivors, the Bulimia subscale significantly discriminated subjects who reported current binge eating.


CONCLUSIONS
Our study confirms that subjects who have survived a period of extreme food deprivation are more likely to develop binge eating behaviour.
Favaro
A
A
Department of Neurological and Psychiatric Sciences at the University of Padova, Italy.
Rodella
F C
FC
Santonastaso
P
P
D000368:Aged; D001294:Attitude to Health; D002032:Bulimia / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology*; D003209:Concentration Camps; D005247:Feeding Behavior; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D006963:Hyperphagia / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology*; D008297:Male; D010555:Personality Inventory; D011056:Political Systems; D013217:Starvation / Q000523:psychology; D017741:Survivors / Q000523:psychology*