Sept 7 : Pregnancy may make women vulnerable to developing binge eating disorder, a new study has warned.

The study, by researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in conjunction with colleagues in Norway, also warned that for women from lower socio-economic situations were especially vulnerable to it.

The long-term study was conducted on 100,000 pregnant Norwegian women by researchers who noted an unexpected increase in new incidences of binge eating disorder that began during pregnancy.

Binge eating differs from the normal cravings that pregnant women often report. People with binge eating disorder regularly consume large amounts of food in a set period of time and report feeling out-of-control during the episode.

The disorder differs from bulimia nervosa in that sufferers don’t engage in purging, such as using vomiting or laxatives.

In addition to contributing to weight gain and obesity, binge eating disorder is also associated with health problems such as anxiety and depression, insomnia, and chronic pain.

Dr. Cynthia M. Bulik, lead study author and William R. and Jeanne H. Jordan Distinguished Professor of eating disorders in the department of psychiatry at the UNC School of Medicine and the department of nutrition in the UNC School of Public Health, said that physicians needed to be more vigilant when it came to screening this disorder.

“We need to be very vigilant across the socioeconomic spectrum to screen for the development of disordered eating during pregnancy. It’s very important that all women receive adequate prenatal care that includes nutritional support,” she said.

The study, the first large-scale research of its kind, also confirms the findings of similar small clinical studies.

Supported by grants from the National Institutes of Health, the findings were published in the August 2007 issue of Psychological Medicine. (ANI)