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Because of these differences in methodologies, reported prevalence rates in studies from the 1980s showed as much as a 20-fold difference. However, the interview-based studies that used rigerous diagnostic criteria have been quite consistent: about 1%-1.5% of young women have bulimia nervosa.
In this sample, 8.2% (raw N=390) of the females and 7.8% (raw N=324) of the male subjects responded affirmatively to the question about binge eating on more than one ocassion. However, only 3.2% of the female subjects and3.3% of the male subjects reported binge eating more than twice per week. [...] In the entire sample, the lifetime prevalence of full-syndrome bulimia nervosa was 1.1% for female and 0.1% for male subjects.
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[p.1057:] The responses to developmental questions support the similarities of the two bulimia nervosa groups. Both showed greater levels af childhood sexual abuse. The nearly tripling of the rate of abuse in these bulimic subjects is in keeping with several earlier case series (33-36), but not others (37). The figure of 33% for women with bulimia nervosa is slightly higher than the frequency of abuse reported in our clinical population by the Toronto group (38). The high rate reported here, in a nonclinical sample, suggests that an association exists but does not indicate what the mediating links are.
In keeping with earlier clinical studies (16, 39, 40), the bulimia nervosa subjects reported higher rates of parental psychopathologies, including depression, alcoholism, suicide attempts, and sociopathic behaviours.
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