Depressive symptoms and syndromes occur commonly in bulimia--an observation which has prompted some investigators to hypothesize an association between bulimia and major affective disorder. However, it has also been suggested that the character of the depressive symptoms in bulimic patients differs from that found in patients with major depression--arguing against an association between the two disorders. To test this possibility, we compared item scores on the Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression among 45 bulimic patients, 21 patients in treatment for major depression, and 27 non-psychiatric control subjects. The bulimic and depressed patients proved indistinguishable on virtually all items, whereas both groups were readily distinguishable from non-psychiatric control subjects.