Daily mood patterns and bulimic behaviors in the natural environment

Abstract

Objective: Negative affect has been purported to play an important role in the etiology and maintenance of bulimic behaviors. The objective of this study was to identify daily mood patterns in the natural environment exhibited by individuals with bulimia nervosa and to examine the relationship between these patterns and bulimic behaviors.

Method: One hundred thirty-three women aged 18-55 meeting DSM-IV criteria for bulimia nervosa were recruited through clinical referrals and community advertisements. Ecological momentary assessment was used to collect multiple ratings of negative affect, binge eating and purging each day for a two-week period using palmtop computers. Latent growth mixture modeling was used to identify daily mood patterns.

Results: Nine distinct daily mood patterns were identified. The highest rates of binge eating and purging episodes occurred on days characterized by stable high negative affect or increasing negative affect over the course of the day.

Conclusions: These findings support the conclusion that negative mood states are intimately tied to bulimic behaviors and may in fact precipitate such behavior.

Figure 1. Flowchart of study participants

Figure 2. Flowchart of EMA data collected

Figure 3. Latent classes of daily negative affect patterns

Figure 4. Daily patterns of binge eating and mood by latent class

Lines represent the mean negative affect (left axis), light bars the proportion of purging episodes (right axis), and dark bars the proportion of binge eating episodes at each assessment time by class.