Laxative withdrawal and anxiety in bulimia nervosa.

Symptoms of anxiety can be prominent during treatment of bulimia nervosa. Our experience is that bulimics who abuse laxatives have the most prominent symptoms of anxiety. We conducted ratings of anxiety in 23 bulimics who purge with laxatives and 17 who purge by vomiting. We found that the laxative-abusing group had higher levels of state but not trait anxiety and that they were more likely to be treated with medication for anxiety during hospitalization. These data suggest an association between laxatives and anxiety in bulimia nervosa.