Overview of the Research
Kate B. Daigle in The Clinical Guide to Fertility, Motherhood, and Eating Disorders, 2019
The essential feature of binge eating disorder is recurrent episodes of binge eating that must occur, on average, at least once per week for 3 months. Binge eating is defined as feeling out of control while eating, and eating an amount of food in a discrete period of time that is more than most people would eat in a similar period of time under similar circumstances.9 Many people with BED are overweight, but a significant amount are in a normal weight range and the disorder can go undetected in this group of people who may also feel invisibilized, or not seen. With the amount of weight stigma in our society today, people in larger bodies may be told to “just lose weight” or go on a diet in order to be healthy by their medical provider, which at the very least may make them feel unheard and could put them at risk for an eating disorder to develop or go unassessed. Menstrual irregularities are also common in BED, especially if a woman is overweight or obese. Obesity in women can result in high levels of androgens, or male hormones, which can cause abnormal menstrual cycles and block ovulation.10
Nonsurgical Management of Obesity
Emmanuel Opara in NUTRITION and DIABETES, 2005
For some people, food is often used to relieve stress or adapt to difficult situations. When these behaviors become maladaptive, eating disorders might result. Not surprisingly, obese people have a higher prevalence of two distinct eating disorders: binge-eating syndrome and night-eating syndrome. Binge eating is a feeling of loss of control while consuming an amount of food that is larger than most people would eat. Binge eating is twice as prevalent in obese patients than nonobese patients.23 Moreover, relative to obese patients who do not binge eat, binge eaters have higher BMIs, as well as higher rates of comorbid depression and anxiety.24 Among bariatric-surgery patients, the prevalence of preoperative binge eating ranges from 13 percent to 49 percent.25 Night-eating syndrome, first recognized by Stunkard in 1955, is defined by ingestion of 50 percent of the daily caloric intake after the evening meal, awakening at least once a night for three nights a week to eat, and morning anorexia. In morbidly obese patients, the prevalence of night-eating syndrome may be as high as 26 percent.26 Dieting or chronic restrained eating may be important triggers for these disorders, which often go unrecognized due to the surreptitious manner in which patients binge. These disorders are complex psychological illnesses; further studies are needed to define appropriate therapy in obese patients with these problems.
ENTRIES A–Z
Philip Winn in Dictionary of Biological Psychology, 2003
Anorexia nervosa is diagnosed following relative weight loss, loss of menses, fear of being fat despite obvious emaciation and disturbed BODY IMAGE. Bulimia nervosa is diagnosed not on the basis of body weight, but on the loss of control of eating, fear of being fat, and repeated episodes of overeating coupled with attempts to get rid of the energy consumed (vomiting, dieting, excessive intake of laxatives/diuretics, fasting, exercise). Both anorexia and bulimia nervosa are characterized by a pathological fear of fatness, thus the central feature of these disorders is not disordered appetite, but rather overvalued ideas about weight and shape. In contrast to this, binge eating disorder does not share the central feature of a fear of being fat and no attempts are made to compensate for overeating. Rather the suggested diagnosis of binge eating disorder depends upon repeated episodes of binge eating characterised by loss of control and eating an objectively large amount of food in a discrete period; experiencing distress following binge eating; and at least three of the following—rapid eating, eating beyond normal comfort, eating when not hungry, eating alone due to embarrassment and feeling disgust, depression or guilt after overeating. Binge eating disorder may be diagnosed in obese and non-obese (see OBESITY) individuals. However, binge eating disorder is in the early stages of investigation and is at present not a fully recognized eating disorder.
Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder symptomatology, binge eating disorder symptomatology, and body mass index among college students
Published in Journal of American College Health, 2020
Jennifer A. Hanson, Lisa N. Phillips, Susan M. Hughes, Kimberly Corson
Binge eating is a form of disordered eating described as the consumption of a remarkably large amount of food that is accompanied by a sense of lack of control.7 Behaviors related to binge eating are a concern on college campuses. For example, 48% of students reported eating an amount of food within two hours that was unquestionably larger than the amount most people would eat in a comparable period of time.4 Similarly, 40% of students indicated that they had experienced a sense of having lost control over their eating at some point during the 4 weeks prior to the survey.3 More concerning than binge eating, binge eating disorder (BED) is a psychiatric disorder characterized by reoccurring episodes of binge eating that take place, on average, at least once per week for three months.7 The mean age of BED onset is in the twenties,12 while the mean duration of the disorder is 14.4 (SD = 13.9) years.13 Adult students have been found to be at greater risk of BED when compared to adult nonstudents.12 Using participant self-reported data, researchers assessed 7.8% of their sample of college students as having BED.14
The interaction between affective lability and eating expectancies predicts binge eating
Published in Eating Disorders, 2022
Anna Marie L. Ortiz, Heather A. Davis, Elizabeth N. Riley, Gregory T. Smith
Binge eating is the consumption of a large amount of food, in a discrete period of time, while experiencing a feeling of loss of control over eating (American Psychiatric Association, 2013). Regular binge eating is included in the diagnostic criteria for DSM-5 bulimia nervosa (BN), binge eating disorder (BED), anorexia nervosa, binge-purge subtype (AN-BP), and certain Other Specified Feeding and Eating Disorders (OSFED; APA, 2013). Importantly, whether part of a diagnosable eating disorder or not, binge eating is associated with distress, including increased depressive symptoms (Puccio et al., 2016), engagement in substance use (Dunn et al., 2002), and heightened social anxiety (Ostrovsky et al., 2013). Further, there is evidence for binge eating impacting one’s ability to meet work, household, and study responsibilities in both men and women (Mond & Hay, 2007).
Understanding relationships between posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms, binge-eating symptoms, and obesity-related quality of life: the role of experiential avoidance
Published in Eating Disorders, 2021
Jennalee S. Wooldridge, Matthew S. Herbert, Cara Dochat, Niloofar Afari
Given that experiential avoidance relates to PTSD symptoms and binge-eating symptoms, we posit that avoidance may explain the relationship between PTSD symptoms and binge-eating symptoms, as well as the relationships between PTSD symptoms and obesity-related quality of life, among veterans with overweight/obesity. Understanding common underlying psychological processes among these co-occurring concerns may inform the development of treatments that address these concerns simultaneously (Brewerton, 2007). Thus, the purpose of the current study was to 1) examine the associations among PTSD symptoms and measures of binge-eating symptoms and obesity-related quality of life in a primarily male sample of veterans with overweight or obesity; and 2) determine whether experiential avoidance explains the relationship among PTSD symptoms and (a) binge-eating symptoms and (b) obesity-related quality of life.We hypothesized that 1) greater PTSD symptoms would be related to greater binge-eating symptoms and lower obesity-related quality of life, and 2) experiential avoidance would mediate the relationship between PTSD symptoms and (a) binge-eating symptoms and (b) obesity-related quality of life.
Related Knowledge Centers
- Binge Eating Disorder
- Body Mass Index
- Bulimia Nervosa
- Disordered Eating
- Eating Disorder
- Major Depressive Disorder
- Obesity
- Overweight
- Medical Diagnosis
- Fasting