The effect of food deprivation on alcohol consumption in bulimic and control women.

The effect of food deprivation on alcohol self-administration was examined in five women with bulimia nervosa and five healthy controls in a semi-naturalistic experimental design. In this within-subjects study, each individual underwent two food-deprived and two non-deprived sessions. The deprivation condition consisted of no food or caloric beverages for 19 hours prior to the experimental procedure. On each of the 4 days, subjects watched a 2-hour segment of an epic movie and were permitted to drink ad libitum. No differences were observed in the number of grams of alcohol consumed under deprived and non-deprived conditions for either group. Breath alcohol levels were significantly higher under the non-deprived condition despite equivalent amounts of alcohol consumed and similar ratings of the subjective sense of tipsiness. Bulimic women consumed equivalent calories due to alcohol as control women but significantly fewer calories due to non-alcoholic beverages. These results do not support the hypothesis that food deprivation leads to increased self-administration of alcohol in women.