Self-induced vomiting. Psychiatric considerations

C. L. Rich

Self-induced vomiting has been associated with the psychiatric diagnosis of anorexia nervosa and a newly proposed disorder named bulimia. Two patients with a self-induced vomiting compulsion did not fulfill criteria for either of these diagnoses. One patient had an affective disorder, and the other had no psychiatric illness, but the habit had developed as a weight control measure. Systematic studies of these symptoms are not available. Clinical diagnostic decisions should not be base on one outstanding sign or symptom, eg, self-induced vomiting, unless research clearly relates the sign or symptom to only one disorder.