CAN BULIMIA BE TREATED WITH PROZAC?

Between 1.3% and 10.1% of all American women suffer from bulimia nervosa, a serious, sometimes even fatal syndrome that causes them to attempt to control their weight by alternating binges of compulsive eating with vomiting and laxative abuse. A study of 387 bulimic women divided them into three equal groups. One group was given 20 mg of Prozac a day, one group was given a daily dose of 60 mg. and one group received a placebo. The results were encouraging. By the end of the eight-week trial, the women on Prozac reported fewer eating binges and less vomiting than the women who had been given a placebo. (Reductions also emerged in depression and carbohydrate craving, among other eating-related measurements.) In addition, those taking the larger dose of Prozac were more successful at changing their behavior than those on the smaller doses.

Although the participants who received Prozac reported a higher incidence of insomnia, nausea, and other side effects, they did not drop out of the program at a greater rate than those on the placebo, suggesting once more that the side effects of Prozac are relatively tolerable.