Loneliness mediates the relationship between emotion dysregulation and bulimia nervosa/binge eating disorder psychopathology in a clinical sample

Abstract

Emotion dysregulation has been linked to binge eating disorder (BED) and bulimia nervosa (BN) although the mechanisms by which it affects BN/BED psychopathology are unclear. This study tested loneliness as a mediator between emotion dysregulation and BN/BED psychopathology. A treatment-seeking sample of 107 women with BN or BED was assessed for loneliness (UCLA Loneliness Scale), emotion dysregulation (Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale), and BN/BED psychopathology (Eating Disorder Examination) before treatment. Hierarchical linear regressions and bootstrapping mediation models were run. Greater overall emotion dysregulation was associated with greater BN/BED psychopathology, mediated by loneliness (95 % CI 0.03, 0.09). Emotion dysregulation, however, did not mediate between loneliness and BN/BED psychopathology (95 % CI −0.01, 0.01). Targeting loneliness may effectively treat emotional aspects of BN/BED in women.

Loneliness, Emotion Dysregulation, and Internalizing Symptoms During Coronavirus Disease 2019: A Structural Equation Modeling Approach

“…In fact, solitude, in its aspects of the intimate, social, and affiliative components, has its most distressing effect if associated with difficulties in emotion regulation. Other studies have shown this strong association ( 69 ) and have investigated the role of emotion regulation strategies as a mediator of the sense loneliness perceived ( 70 ), whereas other authors have investigated loneliness itself as a mediator in the association between emotion regulation strategies and psychological outcomes ( 71 ), showing that loneliness mediates the association between the difficulties in regulating emotions and psychopathology.…”

Illness pathways between eating disorder and post‐traumatic stress disorder symptoms: Understanding comorbidity with network analysis

“…Irritability is a common symptom of depression, anxiety, PTSD, bipolar disorders, ADHD, and other mental disorders (American Psychiatric Association, ), but research on this emotion has been limited. Irritability has been studied in the context of emotion dysregulation, which is strongly associated with binge eating in the literature (Eichen et al, ; Kelly et al, ; Selby, Ward, & Joiner, ; Southward et al, ). Additionally, high levels of irritability may be explained by comorbid conditions such as anxiety and depression, as well as by continued restriction of food intake.…”

Emotion regulation in disordered eating: Psychometric properties of the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale among Spanish adults and its interrelations with personality and clinical severity

“…This is supported by experimental data showing that the suppression of negative emotions leads to increased food intake in both healthy normal weight students and obese individuals with and without binge eating disorder (BED; Evers et al, 2010 ; Svaldi et al, 2014 ). Importantly, negative emotions and their maladaptive regulation are considered key contributing factors to anorexia nervosa (AN; Harrison et al, 2009 ; Davies et al, 2012 ), bulimia nervosa (BN; Southward et al, 2013 ; Lavender et al, 2014 ), and BED (Vanderlinden et al, 2004 ; Brockmeyer et al, 2014 ).…”