Marriage, cohabitation may reduce bulimia symptoms

Young women with bulimia may find their symptoms diminish after they get married or move in with a partner, but that doesn't mean the eating disorder is cured, new research suggests.

In a study that followed a group of Norwegian teenagers for 5 years, researchers found that for young women with bulimia, their most serious problems - bingeing and purging - tended to wane once they were living with a boyfriend or husband.

However, they generally remained dissatisfied with their appearance, and cohabitation did not stop women from taking more discreet, but still unhealthy, measures to control their weight, like using diet pills or laxatives.

The findings suggest that women will limit the most "socially unacceptable" symptoms of bulimia once they live with a partner, according to the study authors, Tilmann von Soest of Norwegian Social Research in Oslo and Lars Wichstrom of the Norwegian University of Science and Technology.

Their study, reported in the International Journal of Eating Disorders, included 2,600 young men and women who were followed for 5 years, starting in high school. Among female students who had bulimia symptoms at the outset, those who subsequently moved in with a partner reported a drop in binge-eating and vomiting.

They did not, however, show an improvement in standard measures of self-esteem or body satisfaction.

Instead, the team writes, it may be the mere presence of another person in the home that makes the difference. It's simply more difficult, they note, for bulimics to take the most visible and extreme measures that mark the disorder.

Though cohabitation did not eliminate women's struggle with bulimia, understanding the social forces that affect their symptoms could aid in treating the eating disorder, the researchers conclude.

SOURCE: International Journal of Eating Disorders, September 2006.