Talk:Defensive vomiting

Untitled
I agree that this article should be deleted or redirected somewhere else, but it isn't really complete garbage, so it shouldn't be deleted speedily. I don't know, is it an actual phenomenon? XYaAsehShalomX 20:18, 3 November 2005 (UTC)


 * I found a number of apparently reliable online soruces that use the term, mostly in the context of eating disorders, and one as a defense by vultures. DES (talk) 20:48, 3 November 2005 (UTC)

Hmmm... I don't know enough about this to add to the article, but I think it's fairly well known that if someone is trying to rape you, vomit if you can. Said to be effective. Herostratus 05:51, 19 November 2005 (UTC)

How on earth did that ridiculous statement about male American highschool students survive this long? Even if it was true (of some of them) it's by no means confined to that group, and no explanation was provided at all. --Saforrest 05:35, 18 June 2006 (UTC)

This isn't a term that's widely used in the field of eating disorders. Yes, a search brings up some authors who've used it, but it's not a common term. Self-induced vomiting is referred to as "purging" in the DSM and in most clinical speech and writing (the term is used regardless of whether this is in response to bingeing or is a component of a restricting pattern). The portion of the article referring to eating disorders should be deleted or at the very least edited to explain that this a nonstandard term and not something that most clinicians are going to understand. I wasn't aware of the term until I saw it here and did a literature search to see whether it was obscure or just complete crap. Triangular 23:24, 13 February 2007 (UTC)

If nothing else, it seems a little weird to me that it covers both sea cucumbers and bulimia. Maybe a disambiguation page? Ed Ropple -  B l a c k e n  - (Talk) 06:20, 9 March 2007 (UTC)

Does defensive vomiting also include voluntary purging, or is it strictly confined to an involuntary response to dangerous levels of binging? Given the confusion even here on the talk page, the distinction should probably be made clear. Inhumandecency (talk) 05:38, 10 September 2008 (UTC)

I also think the relationship between eating disorders and animals in this article is forced - 2 completely different meanings of 'defensive'. Certainly the sea cucumber reference is wrong - expelling internal organs is not vomiting and on the sea cucumber page it is called evisceration. I'll delete the latter, but am open to discussion on the vultures --Yugyug (talk) 23:33, 7 March 2010 (UTC)

Reasoning for changes
No, "defensive vomiting" is not an eating-disorder-related word. People with EDs may "purge," which includes induced vomiting and misuse of laxatives and diuretics.

Google search for operators “’defensive vomiting’ ‘eating disorders’” turned up 905 results, the first 3 of which from Wikipedia. Change that to pages updated within the past year: 5. Similar results from Google books.

It seems that the term “defensive vomiting” isn’t often used regarding humans, but it does make sense as a term. From an evolutionary perspective, vomiting is a defense mechanism to rid the body of noxious substances before they can be fully absorbed. Ergo: vomiting when you’ve had too much to drink; vomiting spoiled food; vomiting poison; vomiting from chemo; etc. Vomiting when there’s something at the back of your throat is actually a defense against choking. So "defensive vomiting," then, can be differentiated from both induced vomiting and vomiting caused by a serious disease.

So I'm still not sure it shouldn't be deleted, but I need to at least get rid of the eating-disorder misinfo. Uberfrauleine (talk) 01:14, 13 October 2014 (UTC)