While the person with anorexia is emaciated and intensely thin to the point that it is difficult to watch, the person with bulimia is normal or near normal weight. These differences have made the description and discovery of bulimia much more difficult to evaluate and treat.
Bulimia was first described in 1976 by Boskind-Lodahl and Gerald Russell, working at the Royal Free Hospital in London. It has since been recognized as an eating disorder, with a DSM IV description, by the American Psychiatric Association as of 1980.
Figures published in the British Journal of Psychiatry showed that the 1992 revelation that Diana, Princess of Wales, suffered from bulimia had the effect of bringing more suffers to find help and eventually halving the number of people who suffered from the disorder in England.
The history of bulimia reveals that it was first described in America as an eating disorder in the 1980’s. Before that it was believed that bulimia was caused by a persons reaction to stress or depression. Later studies have shown that although people with eating disorders have an increased risk of also having an anxiety or panic disorder it isn’t clear which disorder came first.
These studies have also indicated that there may be some biological or hereditary conditions that interact with emotional and psychological factors to result in this disorder.
Resources:
British Journal of Psychiatry: Reliability of Lifetime History of Bulimia Nervosa
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10945092
National Alliance on Mental Illness: Bulimia Nervosa
Science of Eating Disorder: History of Anorexia or Bulimia Nervosa
University of Rochester Medical Center: Bulimia Nervosa
University of Maryland medical Center: Bulimia Nervosa
http://umm.edu/health/medical/altmed/condition/bulimia-nervosa
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