Outcomes Near and Far

What does the future hold for someone with purging disorder? Across studies including 943 individuals with purging disorder, approximately 3 out of 5 people (60%) had an eating disorder at follow-up anywhere from 11 weeks after they started treatment to 10 years after they were recruited from the community. Most continue to have an eating disorder characterized by purging or compulsive exercise in the absence of binge eating, but some progress to bingeing and purging. An average of 10 years after diagnosis with purging disorder, only 40% had no eating disorder. One study reported that 1 in 20 purging disorder inpatients died by 9-year follow-up, with suicide and medical complications of the eating disorder explaining all but one death in this cohort. These sobering statistics underscore the need to do better, and this chapter ends with a call for action to advance understanding and improve interventions for purging disorder.