Recently, a new eating

disorder was announced. Purging

Disorder resembles that of bulimia

nervosa; however, this disorder is

different.

According to an article

published in ScienceDaily magazine,

this disorder deals with eating

and then purging to compensate

for the calories, like bulimia

nervosa. What sets this sickness

apart from bulimia are the portions

that people diagnosed with

the disorder eat.

In Purging Disorder,

women and men eat regular meals

or small meals then, purge or

throw it up.

“Purging disorder is new

in the sense that it has not been

offi cially recognized as a unique

condition in the classifi cation of

eating disorders,” said Pamela

Keel in the ScienceDaily article,

associate professor of psychology

in the University of Iowa College

of Liberal Arts and Sciences, “but

it’s not a new problem. Women

were struggling with purging

disorder long before we began

studying it.”

A study from the University

of Iowa, conducted by

Keel, show that women and

men share similar characteristics

with those who

suffer from bulimia: They

are depressed, feel anxious,

and have a negative outlook

towards their bodily image.

“Right now there

are no evidence-based treatments

for purging disorder,”

said Keel in the article.

“It would be a disservice

to women with purging

disorder to assume that

treatments that work for

bulimia nervosa will work

for purging disorder, given

the differences we found

between the syndromes.

Additional research is

crucial for advancing our

understanding of purging

disorder.”