Sydney, Apr 6 : One in 10 young Australian women take illicit drugs to reduce weight, according to a survey.

Conducted for Grazia magazine, the survey has shown that 10 per cent of women used stimulants like cocaine and speed in a bid to shed weight.

While 67 per cent were in a healthy weight range, 57 per cent of the young women considered themselves overweight, of which another 57 per cent wanted to be size 8 or smaller.

According to the survey involving 993 women, aged 15 to 35, 17 per cent reported suffering from an eating disorder, or having suffered from one in the past.

Nearly 18 per cent said that they had vomited after eating, and 26 per cent said that they had abused laxatives and diet pills.

Christine Morgan, chief executive of The Butterfly Foundation, an eating disorders group, said that drug abuse was a "classic method" used by people on restrictive diets to ward off hunger pangs.

"Drug taking is similar to cigarette smoking - it is a practice people use to suppress their appetite and avoid eating," the Sydney Morning Herald quoted Morgan as saying.

Grazia editor Alison Veness-McGourty called the findings "disturbing".

"We were quite shocked by the idea that people would even consider going to those extremes," she said.

Almost 74 per cent believed that their weight affected their overall happiness, and 19 pct believed that being fat affected their career success.

Fifty-one pct of the women surveyed said that weight gain affected the way other women treated them.

"It''s really sad that so many women have such low self-esteem when it comes to their bodies, even resorting to desperate methods to attain an impossible ideal," Veness-McGourty said.

"Women are their own worst enemies. We found that they compare themselves against their friends and colleagues and they also judge other women on their weight," she added. (ANI)