The correlates of binge eating in two nonpatient samples.

Binge eating in two nonpatient samples was examined as a function of actual body weight (expressed as BMI), attempts to control eating, food/weight preoccupation, and neuroticism. All of these factors were univariately associated with binge eating, but multivariate analyses indicated that food/weight preoccupation was the most powerful predictor, accounting for much of the common variance shared by the various correlates. This replicates previous work and suggests that the dynamics of subclinical bingeing are substantially similar to that found in the full DSM-III-R syndrome of bulimia nervosa.