Is Sexual Orientation a Risk Factor for Bulimia Nervosa?

Monday May 21, 2007

A study published in the International Journal of Eating Disorders suggests that sexual orientation predicts the presence of symptoms of bulimia nervosa.

Researcher Lars Wichstrom surveyed nearly 3,000 Norwegian high school students, logging the presence of same-sex sexual experiences and, regardless of experience, the students' levels of attraction for the same sex.

Five years later, he followed up with the students, and found that males and females who had same-sex sexual experiences were more likely to have symptoms of bulimia. Also, the group of males who had some level of same-sex attraction (whether they acted on it or not) more often showed symptoms of bulimia. Females with same-sex attraction, on the other hand, were not more likely to have developed symptoms.

As with any study of this kind, we do not know the root causes of the correlation--only that it exists in this group. Understanding these causes will require much further study.

_{Source

Wichstrom, Lars. "Sexual orientation as a risk factor for bulimic symptoms." International Journal of Eating Disorders 39 (2006): 448-453.}