Eating disorders represent a significant source of psychological and medical morbidity among late adolescent and young adult women. This talk will review several studies conducted on purging disorder (Keel, Haedt, & Edler, 2005) -- a newly described syndrome characterized by recurrent purging (e.g., self-induced vomiting) after normal or small amounts of food in normal weight individuals. Results of this work support he clinical significance and potential distinctiveness of purging disorder, suggesting that this syndrome may merit specific delineation within nosological schemes. Considering the adage that “we study what we define,” (Walsh & Kahn, 1997), inclusion of purging disorder as a named condition among the DSM-5 Feeding and Eating Disorders Not Elsewhere Classified may facilitate much needed research into the causes, consequences, and efficacious treatment of this “new” eating disorder.

 

Undergraduate research provides a meaningful entry into research careers for students and can lead to important scientific contributions. This talk will focus on a specific research opportunity I had during my senior year of college and how this led to my involvement, over three decades of my life, in a study of bulimic syndromes in college cohorts recruited in 1982, 1992, 2002, and 2012 and followed at 10-, 20-, and 30-year intervals. I will describe this study’s key contributions to the field of eating disorders and to my development as a researcher to illustrate the importance of undergraduate research.