title: Eating and weight/shape criticism as a specific life-event related to bulimia nervosa: a case control study.
abstract: The present study aims to evaluate the occurrence of life events preceding the onset of eating problems in bulimia nervosa patients. A case-control design was used involving the comparison of 60 female subjects who meet DSM-IV criteria for bulimia nervosa with 60 healthy control subjects and 60 subjects with other psychiatric disorders. The RFI (Fairburn et al., 1998) subset of factors that represent exposure to life events in the 12 months immediately before the development of eating problems was used. Women with bulimia nervosa reported higher rates of major stress, criticism about eating, weight and shape and also a great number of antecedent life events during the year preceding the development of eating problems than the healthy control group. However, when compared with the general psychiatric control group only the exposure to critical comments about weight, shape, or eating emerged as a specific trigger for bulimia nervosa. Our findings support the fact that eating and shape/weight criticism in the year preceding the development of eating disturbance seems to be specifically related to bulimia nervosa.
authors.forename: Sonia Ferreira
authors.initials: SF
authors.lastname: Gonçalves
authors.forename: Bárbara César
authors.initials: BC
authors.lastname: Machado
authors.forename: Carla
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Martins
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D052018:Bulimia Nervosa / Q000209:etiology* / Q000523:psychology; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008016:Life Change Events; D016555:Matched-Pair Analysis; D011174:Portugal; D012307:Risk Factors; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000523:psychology; D055815:Young Adult