Women binge to relieve stress.

• Position: Eating Disorders - Brief Article

During the past five years, the number of women seeking treatment for eating disorders has risen alarmingly, reports Cynthia M. Bulik, co-author of Runaway Eating: The Eight-Point Plan to Conquer Adult Food and Weight Obsessions. "Eating problems don't discriminate on the basis of age," says Bulik, the William R. and Jeanne H. Jordan distinguished professor of eating disorders at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and director of the Eating Disorders Program at UNC Hospitals.

In 2004, 35% of the women treated in the UNC Eating Disorders Program were age 30 or older. The Cornell Eating Disorders Program saw a 50% increase in similarly aged women seeking treatment. Meanwhile, the number of women 40 and older at Remuda Ranch, the nation's second-largest eating disorders treatment center, has doubled since 1997. Bulik maintains that a growing segment of midlife women engage in unhealthy eating behaviors to "run away" from emotional and stress-related problems.

She defines runaway eating as the "consistent use of food and...