THE ROLE OF PERFECTIONISM, NEGATIVE AFFECT AND BRAIN- BEHAVIORAL SYSTEMS IN PREDICTION OF BULIMIA DISORDER

Bulimia nervosa is an eating disorder in which a person binges and purges. Research on clinical samples with bulimia nervosa patients has identified a variety of variables associated with bulimic behavior. This research was aimed at determine the role of perfectionism, negative effect, and brain- behavior systems in prediction of bulimia disorder.

Materials & Methods: This study was conducted on 70 bulimia nervosa patients among clients of treatment center, and 70 normal individuals that were selected via purposeful sampling. For gathering information, the Hewitt and Flett multidimensional perfectionism, Head depression, anxiety scale and Carver and Whitt brain-behavioral systems questionnaires were used. Descriptive statistics was used to analyze the results as well as discriminative analysis methods.

Results: Bulimia nervosa patients reported higher levels of perfectionism, negative affect compared with the normal groups. In addition, bulimia nervosa patients showed lower level of bis compared with the normal groups. Also predictors accounted for 85% of the variance in bulimia nervosa.

Conclusion: This study revealed that perfectionism, negative affect and brain- behavioral systems predicted occurrence of bulimia nervosa significantly.