Cortisol responses on the dexamethasone suppression test among women with Bulimia-spectrum eating disorders: associations with clinical symptoms

Abstract

Introduction: Evidence associates Bulimia Nervosa (BN) with altered functioning of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis, but the clinical implications of such alterations need to be better understood. We contrasted cortisol responses to the dexamethasone suppression test (DST) in bulimic and non-eating disordered women and examined relationships among DST cortisol responses, eating symptoms and co-morbid disturbances.

Method: Sixty women with Bulimia Spectrum (BS) Disorders (either BN or normal weight Eating Disorder NOS with regular binge eating or purging) and 54 non-eating disordered women of similar age and body mass index participated in a 0.5 mg DST, and completed interviews and questionnaires assessing eating symptoms and co-morbid psychopathology.

Results: Compared with the normal-eater group, the BS women demonstrated significantly less DST suppression. Among BS women, DST non-suppression was associated with more severe depression, anxiety and eating preoccupations.

Conclusions: Our findings show BS women to show less DST suppression compared to normal eater women, and results link extent of non-suppression, in BS individuals, to severity of depression, anxiety and eating preoccupations.