Bulimia nervosa in two cultures: a comparison of Austrian and American college students

Abstract

We compared 33 college women meeting DSM-III-R criteria for bulimia nervosa, recruited at Leopold Franzens Universität in Innsbruck, Austria, with 33 bulimic women recruited by identical methods at Northeastern University and Boston University in Boston, Massachusetts. Bulimia nervosa showed striking stereotypy across the two cultures. Austrian and American subjects reported similar demographic features, bulimic symptoms, severity and chronicity of illness, associated personal and familial psychiatric disorders, upbringing and family environment, and frequency of childhood sexual abuse. Only two variables, substance abuse and satisfaction with body image, differed markedly between the two groups. These differences appear to represent ambient differences between American and Austrian culture as a whole, rather than specific features of the bulimic syndrome.