No abstract

Obesity is a major health issue in the United States. It has been suggested that addictive-like tendencies toward foods, especially highly processed foods, contributes to this epidemic. If so, interventions used to treat substance-use disorders may be effective for treating overweight/obese patients with food addiction (FA; based on the Yale Food Addiction Scale, version 2.0). This pilot study evaluated four interventions, selected because of their effectiveness in the treatment of substance-use disorders [motivational interviewing (MI), pharmacotherapy (P; naltrexone-bupropion), MI with pharmacotherapy (MI+P), information control (IC; diet and physical activity instruction)], in overweight/obese individuals with and without FA (FA+ and FA-, respectively). Here we report the baseline (pre-intervention) characteristics of FA+ and FA-participants based on their intake documents. FA was fairly common in this population (37.1% of those screened). Most participants experienced depression (81.9%, FA+ 94.3%, FA-73.0%) and anxiety (60.2%, FA+ 74.3%, FA-50%) with greater prevalence (p<.01) and severity in those who were FA+. Many participants screened positive for binge eating (42.2%, FA+ 65.7%, FA-25.0%) and to a lesser extent PTSD (18.1%, FA+ 37.1%, FA-4.2%), with greater prevalence among those who were FA+ (p<.01). Drug abuse (20.5%) and mood disorder (8.4%) were relatively uncommon and prevalence did not differ between FA phenotypes (p>.05). The FA construct identified a distinctive subset of overweight/obese individuals. Differences in baseline characteristics suggest that FA+ and FA-individuals may differ in their response to interventions and the types of support they need to achieve their weight/body fat loss goals.