Orlistat abuse in a case of bulimia nervosa: the changing Indian society.

Eating disorders like bulimia nervosa, generally considered to be rare in Asian countries, are currently on the rise among the youth, probably secondary to rapid westernization and globalization of the orient. Clinical manifestations of these disorders, which were previously thought to be different in the oriental countries, are now also often seen to parallel their western counterparts. However, detailed clinical descriptions of such cases from Asian countries, documenting the societal change, are missing. In addition, the possibility of abuse of various anti-obesity drugs as a part of bulimic compensatory behavior is high in this population, given the easy and unsupervised access of these drugs over the counter. We report a case of bulimia nervosa in a female medical graduate from India, presenting with classic bulimic symptomatology and with a compensatory behavior consisting almost exclusively of Orlistat abuse. This case sensitizes health professionals to the abuse liability of new medications like Orlistat and also documents the changing symptomatology of bulimia nervosa in India.