Bulimia Nervosa

Table of Contents
1. The differences between Anorexia and Bulimia Nervosa
2. Overall Summery of Bulimia Nervosa
3. Social and Anthropological effects
4. How to tell if someone has bulimia
5. Video on Bulimia
6. Some celebrities who have it
7. The treatments for Bulimia Nervosa
8. Conclusion/Bibliography
 Differences Between
Anorexia and Bulimia
Anorexia nervosa: is an eating disorder characterized
by refusal to maintain a healthy body weight and an
obsessive fear of gaining weight, often coupled with a
distorted self image

Bulimia nervosa is
an eating disorder
characterized by
restraining of food
intake for a period
of time followed by
an over intake or
binging period that
results in feelings of
guilt and low self-
esteem
 Overall Summary of Bulimia

What is Bulimia Nervosa

•Bulimia Nervosa is a eating disorder that involves a
period of binge eating, which produces feelings of guilt in
a person, followed by a purging of the food, usually
through vomiting.

•This can happen to anyone around the age of 18

and is 9x more likely for females to get Bulimia Nervosa
than for males due to the media portrayals of women.

Signs and Symptoms of

Bulimia Nervosa

There are many symptom and signs for Bulimia

Nervosa but the most deadly are Electrolyte
Imbalance, which may cause cardiac arrhythmia
(un-normal amount of electrolytes in the heart),
cardiac arrest or even death in some cases.

Other’s could be Chronic gastric reflux(acid reflex),

Infertility, Constipation, Severe dental erosion (acid
reflex), Esophagitis (swelling esophagus) and
Hypokalemia (lack of water due to vomiting) just to
name a few.
History of Bulimia
•Bulimia was originally taken from the Latin word būlīmia
which in the Greek language stands for ravenous hunger
which would be the combinding of the two words βους
meaning (Ox) and λιμός meaning(hunger)

•The first person however to understand βους λιμός and

translate it into Bulimia Nervosa was British psychiatrist
Gerald Russell in 1979.
Bulimia’s effects on Sociology
Sociological effects on Small Scale Statistics
around the world
Australia 2008 1,943 adolescents (ages 15–17) 1.0% male 6.4% female

Portugal 2006 2,028 high school students 0.3% female

Brazil 2004 1,807 students (ages 7–19) 0.8% male 1.3% female

Spain 2004 2,509 female adolescents (ages 13–22) 1.4% female

Hungary 2003 580 Budapest residents 0.4% male 3.6% female

Australia 1998 4,200 high school students 0.3% combined

USA 1996 1,152 college students 0.2% male 1.3% female

Norway 1995 19,067 psychiatric patients 0.7% male 7.3% female

Canada 1995 8,116 (random sample) 0.1% male 1.1% female

Japan 1995 2,597 high school students 0.7% male 1.9% female

USA 1992 799 college students 0.4% male 5.1% female

 How to tell if someone has
Bulimia Nervosa
Behaviour Aspects
Overall Appearance

•Shown as extreme mood swings from time

to time being abnormal emotions of rage
or depressant.
•Sometimes mentioning that they are fat even
when they might not be in any way.
•Sometimes needing additional attention due to
being afraid of being left out because they think
are fat .
•Being worried about eating fatty or high calorie
foods constantly saying they will be fat if they eat
one bite.
•Overall thinking that most or all people look
better than them and they are a disgrace to
themselves.
•Very or quite skinny or the chest
and stomach.
•Sometimes may have swollen or odd
shaped esophagus due to acid reflex.
•Weight loss at a rapid recession if patient
has just begun there own Bulimia Nervosa.
•Sometimes discoloured teeth due to the acid
reflex, however is quite rare with people or
Bulimia Nervosa.
•overall slim or extremely skinny with
• little muscle or fat at all if there is any
Video on Bulimia Nervosa and the basic social effects

http://www.youtube.com/
watch?v=SSlGqGnOARE
 Celebrities with Bulimia
Nervosa
• Princess Diana
• Jane Fonda
• Joan Rivers
• Mary Kate Olson
• Britney Spears
• Nicole Richie
• Barbara Niven
• Paris Hilton
Just to name a few
 Treatments/Rehabilitation
Pharmacological
Pharmacological treatments
states that bulimia nervosa is
a state of addictiveness where
the person often overdoses on
anti-depressants, and laxatives
to help them feel better.
The pharmacological approach is
to prescribe some drugs to
patient. A common drug is anti-
depressants, which works
because bulimia is connected to
depression. Anti-seizure
medicines have also been shown
to work. A group of drugs called
opiate antagonists , which
usually stops craving for
gambling has worked for Bulimia
also.
Psychotherapy
The more generally used to treat
Bulimia Nervosa would be
Psychotherapy. The way that
Psychotherapy would work for
people who have Bulimia Nervosa
would be to telling/teaching the
patient what foods to eat and
what foods can basically hurt your
weight and what foods can
actually help them.
Some doctors might use the
cognitive therapy which is
thinking positive and staying
positive which also showed
improved results amongst people
with the disorder.
 Common Misconceptions
People have to be skinny in order to be bulimic.
-Actually, studies have shown that some bulimic
people are above normal weight. After a while, constant
vomiting slows the metabolism so that weight loss is
difficult.

People vomit all the time. Bulimics are in no serious

danger.
-Fluids and essential electrolytes are lost through
vomiting. This can lead to dehydration. Loss of sodium,
potassium and chlorides can cause muscle spasms, coma
and death.

If someone does not vomit, they are not bulimic.

- Some bulimic sufferers never vomit at all, but use a
different method of purging. This can include use of
laxatives, over-extensive exercise and drug abuse.
 Conclusion

Now you know that having Bulimia is no

laughing matter and has nothing to do
with the person being fat or only of the
female gender female gender

So next time be respectful of the what

the person is going through and help
them out!

By Andrew and Cameron

 Bibliography

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bulimia
_nervosa
• http://www.tdsb.on.ca/libraries/link
s.asp?schoolNo=4148
• http://www.phac-aspc.gc.ca/mh-sm
/problems_e.html
• http://www.camh.net/About_Addic
tion_Mental_Health/Mental_Health
_Information/index.html