According to the Eating Disorder Center of Denver (EDC-D), the number of college-aged women suffering from "drunkorexia" increased this past summer. "Drunkorexia," while not technically a medical term, is the name given to a pattern of disordered eating behaviors that combines bulimia nervosa (binge eating and purging) with binge drinking.

Tamara Pryor, the director of EDC-D, said that about 75 percent of females treated at the center for bulimia during the summer of 2009 also reported binge drinking on a frequent basis. "The way we are looking at it is people at our center have an eating disorder and a co-existing behavior of binge drinking," Pryor said. "They seem to substitute binge eating for binge drinking."

To respond to the increase in this dual behavior, the center developed a special program to deal with "drunkorexia." The program, now in place, is a partial-hospitalization program comprising 10 hours a day of treatment for as little as six to eight weeks or as long as six months, depending on the individual needs of each participant.

Treatment entails attendance in various groups such as body image and cooking and nutrition groups. The patients, who come from across the country, are provided structured meals, and most of them live in apartments near the center.

(Source: www.dailytitan.com)

Labels: denver, drunkorexia, summer