Stress is widely thought to lead to overeating. Studies of stress-induced eating have tested two models. One has tested whether stress increases eating in all exposed organisms and has been tested primarily with animals and physical stressors. The other has tested individual differences in vulnerability to stress-induced eating and has tested only human subjects and psychological stressors. The most consistent set of findings shows that "restrained" eating predicts vulnerability among women; we conclude that for the stressors studied to date, the individual-difference model has received stronger support. Because the question motivating much of this research is whether stress-induced eating causes obesity, future research should assess the effect of stress on weight-change more directly.

for the Depression Screening Data (DEPRESSD) PHQ Collaboration IMPORTANCE The Patient Health Questionnaire depression module (PHQ-9) is a 9-item self-administered instrument used for detecting depression and assessing severity of depression. The Patient Health Questionnaire-2 (PHQ-2) consists of the first 2 items of the PHQ-9 (which assess the frequency of depressed mood and anhedonia) and can be used as a first step to identify patients for evaluation with the full PHQ-9.OBJECTIVE To estimate PHQ-2 accuracy alone and combined with the PHQ-9 for detecting major depression.

Most patients met the diagnostic criteria for conditions for which there are proven treatments; however, inaccurate diagnosis proved common. This barrier to optimal treatment could be ameliorated with the use of structured interviews for common diagnoses. Scores on social/interpersonal measures support the premise that DSM symptoms provide only part of the relevant information about patients' conditions.

Objective Depression, anxiety, and obsessionality frequently are present in underweight, malnourished patients with anorexia nervosa. It is less certain if these symptoms persist after recovery. Thus, we assessed these symptoms in anorexic women at three states of illness (underweight, short‐term weight restored, and long‐term weight restored) in comparison to a group of healthy women. Method: We used standardized self‐ and trained rater instruments to assess depression (Hamilton Depression Rating Scale and Beck Depression Inventory), anxiety (Spielberger State‐Trait Anxiety Inventory and Hamilton Anxiety Rating Scale), and obsessions and compulsions (Yale‐Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale). Results: A similar pattern was found for all symptoms. That is, scores for depression, anxiety, and obsessionality were most elevated in the underweight state. These symptoms improved with weight restoration. However, milder but significantly elevated symptoms persisted in long‐term weight‐restored anorexic women compared to healthy control women. Discussion: These data suggest that malnutrition intensifies the severity of depression, anxiety, and obsessionality in anorexia nervosa. However, the fact that mild to moderate symptoms persisted after long‐term weight restoration raises the possibility that such behaviors are related to the pathogenesis of this illness. © 1997 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Int J Eat Disord 21: 367–376, 1997.

In this study, women with binge eating disorder (BED; n = 41) and weight- and age-matched comparison women without BED (NBED; n = 38) monitored their eating for 6 days, using handheld computers to measure mood, appetite, and setting at all eating episodes and comparison noneating episodes. Poor mood, low alertness, feelings of poor eating control, and craving sweets all preceded binge episodes for the BED group. An unanticipated finding was the frequent report of binge episodes in the comparison group; only feelings of poor eating control and craving sweets predicted binge episodes in this group. Binge eating NBED women tended to experience worse mood, less control, and more craving than other NBED women, contributing to evidence of the close relationship of binge eating and decrements in emotional and appetitive functioning.