Pregnant women with bulimia more depressed

Pregnant women with bulimia tend to be anxious and depressed.

London, April 19: Pregnant women with bulimia tend to be more anxious and depressed than their counterparts without eating disorders. Bulimic women also have lower self-esteem and are more dissatisfied with life and their relationship with their partner, according to a new study.

Bulimia is a disorder among young women who go on eating binges and then feel guilty about it. Bulimia in pregnancy can have serious consequences for both mother and child. The findings come from the world`s first major population study of psychosocial factors in bulimia (bulimia nervosa) during pregnancy, according to a new study from the Norwegian Institute of Public Health (NIPH). The new study includes more than 41,000 pregnant women who responded to a questionnaire from the Norwegian Mother and Child Study (MoBa) from the NIPH. Out of more than 41,000 pregnant women, 96 met the criteria for broadly defined bulimia in the first trimester of pregnancy. Sixty seven reported that they also had bulimia six months before pregnancy, while 26 had developed bulimia after becoming pregnant. It is unknown whether these women had the eating disorder earlier in life. Women with bulimia reported a higher prevalence of life-long physical abuse, sexual abuse and major depression compared with others, said Cecilie Knoph Berg at the Division of Mental Health at the NIPH. The study was published in the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry. IANS