Emotion regulation and emotional eating in anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa

Meule, Adrian; Richard, Anna; Schnepper, Rebekka; Reichenberger, Julia; Georgii, Claudio; Naab, Silke; Voderholzer, Ulrich; Blechert, Jens

doi:10.1080/10640266.2019.1642036

Cited by 88 publications

(67 citation statements)

References 37 publications

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“…This latter results corroborated previous findings suggesting dysfunctional emotion regulation strategies (e.g. suppression, avoidance) in populations with eating disorder [71][72][73], as is the case with other psychiatric disorders [74]. Moreover, problematic eating behaviours, such as binging, purging, and restriction, can be seen as maladaptive strategies to avoid or suppress negative emotions [68,75,76].…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 90%

Clinical and Neurophysiological Correlates of Emotion and Food Craving Regulation in Patients with Anorexia Nervosa

Mallorquí‐Bagué

Lozano‐Madrid

Testa

et al. 2020

JCM

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Background: Difficulties in emotion regulation and craving regulation have been linked to eating symptomatology in patients with anorexia nervosa (AN), contributing to the maintenance of their eating disorder. Methods: To investigate clinical and electrophysiological correlates of these processes, 20 patients with AN and 20 healthy controls (HC) completed a computerized task during EEG recording, where they were instructed to down-regulate negative emotions or food craving. Participants also completed self-report measures of emotional regulation and food addiction. The P300 and Late Positive Potential (LPP) ERPs were analysed. Results: LPP amplitudes were significantly smaller during down-regulation of food craving among both groups. Independent of task condition, individuals with AN showed smaller P300 amplitudes compared to HC. Among HC, the self-reported use of re-appraisal strategies positively correlated with LPP amplitudes during emotional regulation task, while suppressive strategies negatively correlated with LPP amplitudes. The AN group, in comparison to the HC group, exhibited greater food addiction, greater use of maladaptive strategies, and emotional dysregulation. Conclusions: Despite the enhanced self-reported psychopathology among AN, both groups indicated neurophysiological evidence of food craving regulation as evidenced by blunted LPP amplitudes in the relevant task condition. Further research is required to delineate the mechanisms associated with reduced overall P300 amplitudes among individuals with AN.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 90%

Clinical and Neurophysiological Correlates of Emotion and Food Craving Regulation in Patients with Anorexia Nervosa

Mallorquí‐Bagué

Lozano‐Madrid

Testa

et al. 2020

JCM

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“…This is generally in line with the model by Macht (21) that postulated differences between the basic emotions. Moreover, we found that patients with bulimia nervosa reported increased food intake in response to all three negative emotional subscales, whereas patients with anorexia nervosa reported increased food intake in response to happiness, and decreased food intake to the negative emotional subscales (38) , validating the clinical usefulness of the scale and documenting the role of psychopathology as a moderator of the interaction between emotion and eating.…”

Section: Evidence From Psychometric Researchmentioning

confidence: 56%

Emotional eating in healthy individuals and patients with an eating disorder: evidence from psychometric, experimental and naturalistic studies

et al. 2020

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Emotional eating has traditionally been defined as (over)eating in response to negative emotions. Such overeating can impact general health because of excess energy intake and mental health, due to the risks of developing binge eating. Yet, there is still significant controversy on the validity of the emotional eating concept and several theories compete in explaining its mechanisms. The present paper examines the emotional eating construct by reviewing and integrating recent evidence from psychometric, experimental and naturalistic research. Several psychometric questionnaires are available and some suggest that emotions differ fundamentally in how they affect eating (i.e. overeating, undereating). However, the general validity of such questionnaires in predicting actual food intake in experimental studies is questioned and other eating styles such as restrained eating seem to be better predictors of increased food intake under negative emotions. Also, naturalistic studies, involving the repeated assessment of momentary emotions and eating behaviour in daily life, are split between studies supporting and studies contradicting emotional eating in healthy individuals. Individuals with clinical forms of overeating (i.e. binge eating) consistently show positive relationships between negative emotions and eating in daily life. We will conclude with a summary of the controversies around the emotional eating construct and provide recommendations for future research and treatment development.

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“…As such, eating disorder behaviours such as bingeing, purging, or food restriction may be used as a maladaptive coping mechanism to regulate negative affect. For instance, in response to negative affect, individuals with an eating disorder tend to change their food intake, such that individuals with AN have a tendency to restrict their eating, while individuals with BN tend to eat more [40]. A reduction in negative affect after engaging in these behaviours reinforces these maladaptive strategies, which is thought to maintain the eating disorder [41].…”

Section: Emotionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Orthorexic tendencies are linked with difficulties with emotion identification and regulation

2020

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Background: Orthorexia nervosa (ON) is characterised by an unhealthy obsession with healthy eating and while it is not recognised as an eating disorder (or any disorder), current research is exploring similarities and differences with such disorders. The literature has shown that individuals with eating disorders have difficulties identifying and describing emotions (known as alexithymia) as well as regulating them. However no research to date has looked at whether people with orthorexic tendencies also suffer from difficulties with emotions. In this paper, we refer to people with orthorexic tendencies but do not assume that their healthy eating is at a pathological level needing clinical attention. Methods: The current study examined this by asking 196 healthy adults with an interest in healthy eating to complete four questionnaires to measure ON (ORTO-15reduced to ORTO-7CS), eating psychopathology (EAT-26), alexithymia (TAS-20) and emotion dysregulation (DERS-16). Results: We found that difficulties identifying and regulating emotions was associated with symptoms of ON, similar to what is found in other eating disorders. We suggest that ON behaviours may be used as a coping strategy in order to feel in control in these participants who have poor emotion regulation abilities. Conclusions: Our results show that individuals with ON tendencies may share similar difficulties with emotions compared to other eating disorders. While important, our results are limited by the way we measured ON behaviours and we recommend that further research replicate our findings once a better and more specific tool is developed and validated to screen for ON characteristics more accurately.

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Emotion regulation and emotional eating in anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa

Cited by 88 publications

References 37 publications

Clinical and Neurophysiological Correlates of Emotion and Food Craving Regulation in Patients with Anorexia Nervosa

Clinical and Neurophysiological Correlates of Emotion and Food Craving Regulation in Patients with Anorexia Nervosa

Emotional eating in healthy individuals and patients with an eating disorder: evidence from psychometric, experimental and naturalistic studies

Orthorexic tendencies are linked with difficulties with emotion identification and regulation

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