bulimia

(redirected from bulimia nervosa)
Also found in: Dictionary, Thesaurus, Medical, Acronyms, Wikipedia.

Related to bulimia nervosa: anorexia nervosa

eating disorders

eating disorders, in psychology, disorders in eating patterns that comprise four categories: anorexia nervosa, bulimia, rumination disorder, and pica. Anorexia nervosa is characterized by self-starvation to avoid obesity. People with this disorder believe they are overweight, even when their bodies become grotesquely distorted by malnourishment. Bulimia is characterized by massive food binges followed by self-induced vomiting or use of diuretics and laxatives to avoid weight gain. Some anorexic patients combine bulimic purges with their starvation routine. These disorders generally afflict women—particularly in adolescence and young adulthood—and are much less common among men. Some researchers believe that anorexia and bulimia are caused by chemical imbalances in the brain; one study has linked bulimia to deprivation of tryptophan, an amino acid used by the body to make the neurotransmitter serotonin. Others contend that these disorders are rooted in societal ideals that value slenderness. Rumination disorder generally occurs during infancy, and involves repeated regurgitation accompanied by low body weight. Infants suffering from rumination disorder may re-ingest the regurgitated food. Pica, also found primarily among infants, is characterized by eating various non-nutritive substances like plaster, paint, or leaves. Obesity is not generally considered an eating disorder, since its causes tend to be physiological.

bulimia

see ANOREXIA NERVOSA.

Collins Dictionary of Sociology, 3rd ed. © HarperCollins Publishers 2000

The following article is from The Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1979). It might be outdated or ideologically biased.

Bulimia

voracious appetite, severe increase in appetite that usually comes on in the form of an attack and is accompanied by tormenting hunger, general weakness, and pain in the epigastrium. Bulimia occurs in some diseases of the central nervous system and the endocrine system and in certain mental illnesses. Treatment consists in attacking the cause.

bulimia

[bə′lēm·ē·ə]

(medicine)

Excessive, insatiable appetite, seen in psychotic states; a symptom of diabetes mellitus and of certain cerebral lesions. Also known as hyperphagia.

bulimia

1. pathologically insatiable hunger, esp when caused by a brain lesion

2. a disorder characterized by compulsive overeating followed by vomiting: sometimes associated with anxiety about gaining weight

Collins Discovery Encyclopedia, 1st edition © HarperCollins Publishers 2005

Mentioned in ?

References in periodicals archive ?

* Family studies have made a connection between genetic susceptibility and anorexia nervosa as well as with bulimia nervosa.

What are major eating disorders?

Assim, sugerem quatro factores preditores de recaida em comportamentos bulimicos: comportamentos bulimicos persistentes durante a gravidez, historia de anorexia nervosa antes do diagnostico de bulimia nervosa, diabetes gestacional e gravidez nao planeada.

Perturbacoes do comportamento alimentar na gravidez: uma revisao

Anorexia nervosa e bulimia nervosa: abordagem cognitivo-construtivista de psicoterapia.

Estudo sobre a anorexia e bulimia nervosa em universitarias

Non-purging Type: During the current episode of bulimia nervosa, the person has used other inappropriate compensating behaviours such as fasting or excessive exercise, but not regularly used purging behaviour.

Eating disorders in children and adolescents

Comorbidity and medical complications of bulimia nervosa. J Clin Psychiatry 1991; 52: 13-20.

Hypokalaemia in a woman with eating disorder

Regular moderate exercise is helpful in both managing stress and promoting a healthy body shape and composition in individuals with bulimia nervosa. In our patients a simple 30 minutes of walking exercise at the range of 50-75% of maximum heart rate was enough to decrease the percent body fat, fat mass, BMI, body weight and increase lean body weight.

The effects of exercise in obese women with bulimia nervosa

Women with bulimia nervosa regularly and sometimes secretly binge on large quantities of food--up to 20,000 calories at a time--then experience intense feelings of guilt or shame and try to compensate by getting rid of the excess calories.

Eating disorders are mental illnesses

Hypnotherapy has been determined to be an effective approach for treating bulimia nervosa. Recent literature indicates that there are significant connections between the hypnotic process and the underlying cognitive and psychological processes of bulimic symptomatology.

Integrative hypnotherapeutic protocols for treating bulimia nervosa: A treatment manual

After an overview of eating disorders, they focus on the treatment in turn of anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa and binge-eating disorder.

The treatment of eating disorders; a clinical handbook

(2,3) Moreover, the use of hands and fingers to provoke gag reflex in bulimia nervosa may also damage the delicate oral mucosal lining.

Necrotizing sialometaplasia--a practical approach to the diagnosis

Professor Ulrike Schmidt said: "Pro-ana and pro-mia websites advocate anorexia nervosa or bulimia nervosa as a lifestyle choice, rather than as serious mental disorders.