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The relationship between abuse and psychiatric diagnoses was investigated in two groups of physically abused adolescents, 57 living in homes with interparental violence and 32 in homes without such violence, and in 96 nonabused adolescents living in nonviolent homes. Adolescents in the first group were found to be at greater risk for depression, separation anxiety disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder, and oppositional defiant disorder than were those in the second group. Adolescents in the first group also appeared more vulnerable to anxiety and depression.

A group of college women diagnosed with bulimia nervosa and past depression (n = 15) were compared to women with no bulimia and past depression (n = 46) and women with no bulimia and no past depression (n = 88) on their rate of learning and cognitive distortions on a computerized mental maze task. Half of the participants in each group were randomly assigned to receive positive social feedback for correct responses during the learning task and half to receive negative social feedback for errors. Participants with bulimia (and past depression) receiving negative feedback learned the task at a significantly faster rate (p < .03) than those receiving positive feedback, who learned at the same rate as all no-bulimia control groups. It was suggested that participants with bulimia nervosa learned the task unusually quickly in order to minimize the particularly salient negative social feedback they were receiving.