The Clinical Utility of Food Addiction: Characteristics and Psychosocial Impairments in a Treatment-Seeking Sample

Abstract

Little is known about the characteristics of individuals seeking treatment for food addiction (FA), and the clinical utility of FA has yet to be established. To address these gaps, we examined (i) the demographic, eating pathology, and psychiatric conditions associated with FA and (ii) whether FA is associated with psychosocial impairments when accounting for eating-related and other psychopathology. Forty-six patients seeking treatment for FA completed self-report questionnaires and semi-structured clinical interviews. The majority of the sample were women and self-identified as White, with a mean age of 43 years. Most participants (83.3%) presented with a comorbid psychiatric condition, most commonly anxiety and mood disorders, with a mean of 2.31 comorbid conditions. FA was associated with binge eating severity and anxiety symptoms, as well as psychological, physical, and social impairment. In regression analyses controlling for binge eating severity, food cravings, depression, and anxiety, FA remained a significant predictor only of social impairment. Taken together, the results suggest that individuals seeking treatment for FA are likely to present with significant comorbid conditions, in particular anxiety disorders. The results of the present research provide evidence for the clinical utility of FA, particularly in explaining social impairment.

Metabolic, Affective and Neurocognitive Characterization of Metabolic Syndrome Patients with and without Food Addiction. Implications for Weight Progression

“…In a similar way, according to what it was hypothesized, those patients with FA presented higher impairments in all the assessed parameters of quality of life than those without FA, except for the one related to physical pain. Impairments in quality of life have been already mentioned in the literature in populations that present FA [ 27 , 28 , 29 ], but just a few studies have explored the influence of FA over the quality of life in contrast with the other metabolic parameters. Its findings are in concordance with the ones of the present study, being that the metabolic disturbances seem not to be enough to imply detriments in quality of life [ 14 ], but the presence of FA does.…”

“…Particularly, higher depressive symptomatology has been found in the population with FA [ 18 , 22 , 24 , 26 ], presenting a positive association between both. Additionally, FA has been associated with impairments in quality of life, involving psychological, physical, and social aspects in both clinical [ 27 ] and non-clinical populations [ 28 , 29 ].…”

Novel approaches to tackling emotional loss of control of eating across the weight spectrum

“…Over time, several factors may cause emotional eating to become maintained possibly through the development of 'addictive' processes with food or eating behaviour. However, the utility of the concept of food addiction and its overlap with emotional eating, eating disorders and anxiety is uncertain (31) .…”

Advances and Future Directions in the Clinical Utility of Food Addiction

“…This special issue presents a collection of articles, contributed by renowned experts, researchers, and clinicians spanning different disciplines, that adds to the knowledge on the clinical utility of food addiction and eating addiction. The articles in this collection include reviews [ 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 ] as well as original research utilizing a variety of methodologies and study designs such as clinical trials [ 6 , 7 , 8 ], cross-sectional studies [ 9 , 10 ], and surveys [ 11 ].…”

“…Oliveria et al [ 10 ] examined the characteristics of individuals seeking treatment for food addiction and found that they were very likely to present with comorbid diagnoses (83% of patients). On average, patients presented with 2 to 3 comorbid conditions, with anxiety and mood disorders being the most common.…”