"The number of women trying to diet increased, so the number of women that fail also increased," he says.

And bulimia appears to be more common than anorexia nowadays, Heatherton says. He attributes the rise in bulimia cases to the difficulty of sustaining the extreme dieting habits of anorexia.

Bulimia is more prevalent than anorexia on college campuses simply because anorexia occurs more commonly at high school age, Hall says.

The increase in eating disorder cases can also be attributed to the "superwoman" syndrome, says Heatherton. Women are facing "increased pressures to fulfill multiple roles," he says.

Not only has the number of cases of eating disorders risen, but the possible forms eating disorders can assume have increased, says Heatherton.

Sub-clinical eating disorders such as compulsive exercise have become especially common, he says.

ECHO, the Bureau of Study Counsel and UHS are all available to help students with eating concerns.

ECHO, the student-staffed organization founded in 1984, receives about three to four calls per week on a variety of issues: from "grumbling about the food in the dining halls" to actual eating disorders, Hall says.

"ECHO tries to look at eating concerns as a spectrum," Hall says. "We primarily provide a place where people can talk about issues with people who have had some training."

But Hall emphasized the fact that ECHO may refer students to the Bureau of Study Counsel or to UHS for more serious treatment.

"It is a coordinated effort," he says.

The Bureau of Study Counsel offers an eating concerns group for bulimic women and a workshop--titled "What Should I Do? A Workshop for Friends, Lovers and Roommates of People with Eating Disorders"--once each semester.

Riendl, who along with Suzanne Repetto supervises ECHO and provides individual counselling and UHS referrals, says that the Bureau may be more accessible than UHS to some students.

"For some students, it is easier to seek help in the service of their learning...rather than turn to a more medical model," she says.

For students who seek more professional help, UHS provides extensive medical assistance, according to Nadja B. Gould of the UHS Mental Health Service.