The scores of 78 bulimia nervosa (BN) patients and 67 general psychiatric outpatients on the Revised Eating Disorder Inventory (EDI-2) were compared in a multivariate discriminant analysis. The bulimia scale was found to correctly classify 97 per cent of all cases. Of the EDI-2 scales thought to be not directly related to food and weight, only interoceptive awareness (IA) and asceticism (AS) showed discriminative validity. Three eating-related items were found to account for the discriminative value of the IA scale, and the new AS scale was found to be a discriminative extension of the EDI.