[Employment and effectiveness of the BITE questionnaire in screening for eating disorders].

OBJECTIVE

The purpose of study was to describe a new briet questionnaire, the Bulimic Investigatory Test, Edinburgh (BITE), for detection of binge eating disorder and bulimia nervosa.

METHOD: Description of the BITE test which was developed by Henderson and Freeman in 1987. The scale measures of both symptoms and severity by the eating disorders.

RESULTS

Data from some Hungarian studies demonstrate satisfactory reliability and validity. The BITE test is well suited in the national circumstance to demonstrated the control lost status with binges and the predisposition to bulimia nervosa. The test alone it isn't enough to diagnose of binge eating disorders and bulimia nervosa. The test is well sensitive to measure the effectiveness of the therapy and the changes of symptoms.

CONCLUSION

All items of BITE test are covered the diagnostic criteria by Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders of bulimia nervosa. The BITE can be as a screening method for binge eating disorder in obese patients too.