title: An empirical study of the typology of bulimic symptoms in young Portuguese women.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To investigate whether clusters of bulimic symptoms exist in a community sample of young Portuguese women.
  
  
  METHODS
  A total of 2028 females, aged 12-23 years, completed the Eating Disorder Examination Questionnaire (EDE-Q). Latent class analysis was applied to the seven bulimic symptoms, age, and body mass index.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The selected 4-class solution yielded a "healthy" class, reporting minimal binge eating and purging behaviors. A "binge eating" class, resembled binge eating disorder. A "purging" class had infrequent binge eating, but frequent compensatory behaviors. Finally, in a "classic bulimia nervosa" class, binge eating episodes were reported by 95% of participants, and compensatory behaviors were frequently endorsed. EDE -Q global and subscale scores differed across all latent classes.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  In the community, three natural patterns exist: binge eating plus compensatory behaviors, binge eating only, and purging in the absence of binge eating. These results have implications for future revisions of eating disorders nosology.
authors: Department of Psychiatry, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA.
authors: Andrea Poyastro
authors: AP
authors: Pinheiro
authors: Cynthia M
authors: CM
authors: Bulik
authors: Patrick F
authors: PF
authors: Sullivan
authors: Paulo P P
authors: PP
authors: Machado
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D015992:Body Mass Index; D002032:Bulimia / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000523:psychology; D052018:Bulimia Nervosa / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000208:ethnology* / Q000523:psychology; D002391:Catchment Area, Health; D002648:Child; D036262:Empirical Research; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D011174:Portugal; D015995:Prevalence; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires