Blindness and bulimia nervosa: a description of a case report and its treatment.
OBJECTIVE
Blindness has rarely been described in the eating disorder (ED) literature. In case reports in which this condition has been reported before an ED, it was concluded that visual body image was not essential for the development of the ED. This is the first report in which bulimia nervosa (BN) and its treatment in a blind woman were described.


METHODS
We report a single diagnosed and treated case of BN in a blind, 47-year-old Spanish woman. This case presented as its main characteristics the late onset of the ED, restrictive dieting, binging, and consequent purging behavior characterized by vomiting and great difficulties of coping with stress. From the beginning, the woman's body image was not essential. The treatment consisted of 21 individual outpatient sessions, which followed a non-symptom-oriented cognitive-behavioral approach, in which problem solving and stress management strategies were employed.


RESULTS
Before, after the treatment, and at the 6-month and 1-year follow-up, the clinical evolution of the patient was assessed.


CONCLUSIONS
Although a few descriptions of single case reports on blindness in individuals with anorexia nervosa (AN) have already been reported in the literature, to the authors' knowledge, this is the first reported case in which this condition and its treatment have specifically been reported in an individual with BN.
Fernández-Aranda
Fernando
F
Department of Psychiatry, University Hospital of Bellvitge, Barcelona, Spain. ffernandez@csub.scs.es
Crespo
Jose M
JM
Jiménez-Murcia
Susana
S
Krug
Isabel
I
Vallejo-Ruiloba
Julio
J
D001766:Blindness / Q000150:complications*; D052018:Bulimia Nervosa / Q000150:complications* / Q000628:therapy*; D015928:Cognitive Behavioral Therapy / Q000379:methods*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged