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Bulimia in British Blacks and Asians

A Catchment Area Study

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

J. Hubert Lacey*
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, St George's Hospital Medical School
Bridget M. Dolan
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, University of Bradford; also Department of Psychiatry, St George's Hospital Medical School
*
St George's Hospital Medical School, Tooting, London SW17 0BR

Abstract

This paper describes the demographic and clinical features of five non-white, normal body weight bulimics, all from the same catchment area. Comparisons with white bulimic referrals from the same area showed clinical similarities, but the non-white bulimics gave an account of gross emotional deprivation: all came from broken homes; four had been separated for long periods from their mothers; two had been subjected to incestuous abuse; and four had been cared for by white women. Response to treatment was poor. The ratio of non-white referral to white was at most one tenth of the ratio of non-white to white women in the catchment area.

Type
Papers
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal College of Psychiatrists 

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