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Purpose: To determine the prospective associations between sleep disturbance and binge-eating disorder and behaviors in a national sample of early adolescents in the United States (US)., Methods: We analyzed prospective cohort data from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development Study (N = 9428). Logistic regression analyses were used to determine the associations between several sleep variables (e.g., overall sleep disturbance, disorders of initiating and maintaining sleep [insomnia], duration; Year 2) and binge-eating disorder and behaviors (Year 3), adjusting for sociodemographic Year 2 binge-eating covariates., Results: Overall sleep disturbance was prospectively associated with higher odds of binge-eating disorder (OR = 3.62, 95% CI 1.87-6.98) and binge-eating behaviors (OR = 1.59, 95% CI 1.17-2.16) 1 year later. Disorders of initiating and maintaining sleep were prospectively associated with higher odds of binge-eating disorder (OR = 1.12, 95% CI 1.05-1.19) and binge-eating behaviors (OR = 1.06, 95% CI 1.03-1.10). Sleep duration under 9 h was prospectively associated with greater binge-eating behaviors., Conclusions: Sleep disturbance, insomnia symptoms, and shorter sleep duration were prospectively associated with binge eating in early adolescence. Healthcare providers should consider screening for binge-eating symptoms among early adolescents with sleep disturbance., Level of Evidence: Level III: Evidence obtained from well-designed cohort or case-control analytic studies., Competing Interests: Declarations. Ethics approval and consent to participate: Centralized institutional review board (IRB) approval was obtained from the University of California, San Diego. Study sites obtained approval from their respective IRBs, caregivers provided written informed consent, and each child provided written assent. Consent to publication: Not applicable. Competing interests: The authors have no conflict to declare., (© 2025. The Author(s).)

Purpose: Individuals with obesity and binge eating face weight stigma, which can lead to internalized weight bias (IWB), reinforce eating disorder (ED) pathology, and promote unrealistic weight loss expectations (WLE). Greater understanding of pathways between IWB, ED pathology, and WLE could inform interventions to promote healthy WLE and reduce IWB. This study explored pathways through which IWB directly and indirectly relates to eating pathology and WLE in treatment-seeking adults with obesity and recurrent binge eating., Methods: Participants (N = 199, Mage = 40.3, SD = 14.3) completed the Eating Disorder Examination interview (EDE) and questionnaire (EDE-Q), Modified Weight Bias Internalization Scale, and Positive and Negative Affect Scale. WLE were calculated based on participants' expected weight loss divided by current weight. We hypothesized that greater IWB would be associated with greater eating pathology and higher WLE. Pearson correlations were examined to identify possible pathways, followed by exploring direct and indirect associations for pathways with significant correlations., Results: IWB was positively correlated with Eating and Shape Concerns, as well as negative affect (p < 0.05), but not with WLE. Negative affect was positively correlated with WLE. In the pathway model, IWB was directly, negatively associated with WLE (b = - 0.02, p < 0.05). Negative affect was a significant indirect pathway between IWB and WLE (b = 0.01)., Conclusions: Our results align with previous literature showing that IWB reinforces eating pathology. Interventions targeting negative affect might promote more reasonable WLE., Level of Evidence: Level V, cross-sectional descriptive study., Competing Interests: Declarations. Ethics approval and consent to participate: This study was performed in line with the principles of the Declaration of Helsinki. Approval was granted by the Northwestern University Institutional Review Board (STU00208056). Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study. Consent for publication: The authors affirm that human research participants provided informed consent for publication. Competing interests: The authors declare no competing interests., (© 2025. The Author(s).)

Background/Objectives : Evidence suggests that food insecurity (FI) is a risk factor for eating disorder (ED) symptoms, especially binge eating (BE), yet research focusing on the psychosocial effects among midlife/older women is lacking. Midlife/older women living with FI experience intersectional disadvantage, thus highlighting the need for an independent investigation of the cultural and contextual factors of this population. The current study examined the difference in psychological health and quality of life (QOL) among women living with BE and FI (BE + FI) versus FI without BE. Method : Female clients of a food bank, aged 50+ ( N = 295; M age = 62.1 years, SD = 8.2) living with FI completed measures of BE and psychosocial comorbidities. The measures were provided in English and Spanish. Results : A multivariate analysis of covariance compared women living with BE and FI (BE + FI) versus FI without BE on outcomes related to mental health and wellbeing. Covarying for age, FI severity, and ethnicity, the results indicated that women living with BE + FI reported worsened anxiety, depression, ED-related psychosocial impairment, internalized weight stigma, and QOL versus women living with FI without BE (all p s < 0.001). Effect sizes ranged from small to medium to large. Conclusions : Midlife/older women living with BE + FI report poorer psychological health and QOL than those living with FI without BE, demonstrating a critical need for mental healthcare in this population. Innovative solutions-and likely a portfolio of interventional approaches with various entry points and delivery modalities-are warranted, if we are to make significant strides in addressing ED symptoms in this population.

Eating is essential to the survival of any living organism. However, beyond simple nutrition, eating is a source of pleasure that awakens a host of emotions and shapes our first relationships. In eating disorders, this vital process becomes a source of psychological distress, with somatic consequences and an impact on the functioning of the individual and his/her environment. Recently, new diagnostic and etiopathogenic approaches have led to a better understanding of these disorders. The use of innovative techniques, such as neuromodulation, virtual reality, and psychedelics, is paving the way for more targeted and individualized therapies., Competing Interests: Les auteurs n’ont déclaré aucun conflit d’intérêts en relation avec cet article.

Background: Emotional eating (EE) is a tendency to consume food in response to positive or negative emotions, leading to obesity and an increased Body Mass Index (BMI). Evidence supports the positive association between EE and binge eating disorder (BED), but little is known about its prevalence among patients referred for bariatric surgery and the psychological characteristics of this patient population. We aim to examine (i) the prevalence of binge eating and EE, (ii) its association with the prevalence of anxiety, depression, diabetes and hypertension and (iii) the correlation between anxiety and depression with emotional and binge eating behaviours among patients attending a regional bariatric service in the UK., Method: A cross-sectional case file design involving 285 participants (mean age = 43.88 ± 11.5, female (80.7%) and male (19.3%)) was used. Outcome measures included body weight, BMI, the Weight Loss Readiness (WLR) Questionnaire, Generalised Anxiety Disorder-7 (GAD-7), Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9) and Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test- Consumption (AUDIT-C)., Results: Within this patient group, the prevalence of binge eating and EE were 28.8% and 22.1% respectively. Among these, 19.3% had diabetes mellitus, 24.8% hypertension, 21% harmful alcohol use, 65% had high anxiety score and 77% high depression scores. Most correlations between body weight and variables like AUDIT-C, GAD-7, PHQ-9 scores and WLR scores for hunger, binge eating and EE were not significant. A positive association was observed between depression and anxiety with binge eating, and EE behaviours., Conclusion: Patients awaiting bariatric surgery have a wide range of mental and physical health comorbidities, with evidence of positive associations between higher depression and anxiety levels with abnormal eating behaviours. These findings highlight the need for screening for comorbidities in this patient population to optimise patient outcomes postbariatric surgery., (© 2024 The British Dietetic Association Ltd.)

Psychological stress has complex effects on eating behavior, appearing to reduce homeostatically regulated feeding, while increasing hedonically motivated feeding. The present work tests this idea using two feeding paradigms that offer a highly palatable food on a time-limited basis, together with continual access to a low palatability food. This approach provides a natural separation between periods of eating that are primarily homeostatic vs. hedonically regulated. First, the impact of acute stress exposure on feeding behavior was tested using an acute "meal-dessert" paradigm. When fasted adult male rats were given a recent stressor of moderate intensity (restraint), refeeding with a chow-meal was reduced, without affecting chocolate-dessert intake, thereby increasing the proportion of calories derived from chocolate. Next, the effect of chronic moderate stress was tested using a "binge" eating paradigm. Chow-fed rats were given unexpected (3d per week) vs. expected (7d per week) brief access to a highly palatable high-fat diet (HFD), and feeding behavior was compared to control groups that were maintained with continuous access to only chow or only HFD. Chronic stress reduced total caloric intake in all groups, including binge-like HFD intake. Binge-like HFD intake caused metabolic dysfunction (increased adiposity and impaired glucose homeostasis) to an extent beyond that predicted by total caloric intake or body weight gain. Finally, binge-like HFD intake shifted stress coping behavior from an active to a passive phenotype, particularly in rats receiving concurrent chronic stress, suggesting the possibility of increased risk for stress-related disorders, like depression, in individuals who binge eat during stress., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare the following financial interests/personal relationships which may be considered as potential competing interests: Yvonne M. Ulrich-Lai reports financial support was provided by National Institutes of Health. Yvonne M. Ulrich-Lai reports a relationship with National Institutes of Health that includes: funding grants. If there are other authors, they declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Binge eating (BE) is associated with psychological distress, functional impairment, and elevated risk of eating disorder diagnoses, and BE prevalence is increasing. Motivational and self-regulatory processes such as delay discounting may be important influences on BE; however, evidence is inconclusive, and lacks explanation of mechanisms. This study investigated how food choice motives mediate the pathway from delay discounting (DD) to BE symptomatology. Adult participants (N = 391, 80% female, mean age 38.93) completed the Monetary Choice Questionnaire (DD), Food Choice Questionnaire (food choice motives), and Binge Eating Scale online. We used structural equation modelling (SEM) to analyse hypothesised partially-mediated pathways from DD to BE via Health, Mood, and Sensory Appeal food choice motives, incorporating participant age, sex, BMI, and Weight Control motives. The best fitting SEM indicated steeper DD was associated with greater BE, but this effect was fully mediated by lesser endorsement of Health motives. Greater endorsement of Mood and Weight Control motives, along with female sex and higher BMI, also accompanied greater BE symptomatology. Counter to hypotheses, Mood and Sensory Appeal did not mediate the relationship between DD and BE. The novel finding that Health motives mediated the effect of DD on BE suggests steeper discounting may hinder the longer-term perspective needed to value the health attributes of food, and thus promote food intake for immediate reinforcement. The significant effects of Weight Control and Mood motives independent of DD suggest support for overvaluation of weight and shape and negative reinforcement mechanisms in the etiology of BE. Our study highlights the influence of food choice motives and DD in BE, and supports the integration of individualised motivational and neurocognitive interventions in eating disorder treatment., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.)

Objective: This study investigated longitudinal relationships between social media usage and binge eating (BE) in early adolescence and explored potential moderating effects of sex and BMI., Methods: Data from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) Study, including 1940 participants aged 11 to 12 years at Wave 1, were analyzed over three annual waves. Social media addiction (SMA) scores and time spent on social media were calculated from self-report questionnaires. BE symptoms were evaluated using the Kiddie Schedule for Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia (KSADS-5) through self-reports and parent reports. Modified Poisson regression was used to estimate associations, adjusting for demographic and behavioral covariates., Results: SMA symptoms, but not time on social media, were cross-sectionally and prospectively associated with BE. Prospective associations were stronger in male adolescents and differed by baseline body weight. The consistently high SMA group showed the strongest association with follow-up BE compared with the consistently low SMA group, whereas decreased and increased SMA groups showed similarly positive associations., Conclusions: SMA scores predict BE in early adolescence, with differentiation in the relationship by sex and weight status. Further observational and interventional research could illuminate underlying mechanisms and test the value of targeting social media-addictive behaviors to mitigate the risk of disordered eating., (© 2024 The Obesity Society.)

The present study assessed the links between interoceptive sensibility, binge, disordered (emotional, restrained, and external) and intuitive eating among individuals with obesity ( n  = 57) and normal weight ( n  = 29). Individuals with obesity presented lower "attention regulation," "body-listening," and "trusting" interoceptive dimensions. When age was controlled, group differences on "trusting" remained significant. Individuals with obesity showed lower intuitive eating, higher emotional, and binge eating compared to controls. Higher "body listening," "eating for physical rather than emotional reasons," and "reliance on hunger and satiety cues" predicted lower binge eating whereas "external eating" predicted higher binge eating among individuals with obesity. Eating for physical reasons and reliance on hunger and satiety had protective mediating roles in the relationship between external and binge eating in both groups. Interoceptive sensibility and intuitive eating should conjointly serve as psychotherapeutic targets for disordered eating, obesity, and weight management., Competing Interests: Declaration of conflicting interestsThe authors declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Appetitive and aversive motivation are prominent in theories of dysregulated behaviors. The authors conducted a meta-analysis of the association between individual differences in appetitive and aversive motivation and several dysregulated behaviors (i.e., alcohol use, marijuana use, tobacco use, binge eating, aggression, gambling, and nonsuicidal self-injury). Alcohol use ( r = .17, k = 141), marijuana use ( r = .13, k = 23), aggression ( r = .22, k = 52), and gambling ( r = .08, k = 55) were all significantly positively related to appetitive motivation. Binge eating ( r = .28, k = 34) and self-injury ( r = .17, k = 10) were significantly positively related to aversive motivation. Effect sizes were similar to the median effect size in personality research. Together, these results provide some evidence that some dysregulated behaviors are more correlated with approach motivation, whereas others are more correlated with aversive motivation, which may indicate distinct etiological pathways., Competing Interests: Declarati on of Conflicting InterestsThe author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

The aim of the study was to identify the prevalence of food addiction (FA) and binge eating (BE) in a general Polish population, to explore the differences between these constructs, and to examine psychological differences among FA, BE, and FA + BE groups. 2123 participants completed the questionnaires: Yale Food Addiction Scale 2.0, Binge Eating Scale, The PTSD Checklist for DSM-5, Life Events Checklist, Adverse Childhood Experiences, Short UPPS-P scale (impulsive traits), Dutch Eating Behavior Questionnaire and Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale - 21 items. 492 participants reported clinically significant symptoms of FA, BE, or both. Spearman's correlations, Mann-Whitney U tests, and Kruskal-Wallis tests were performed to examine the relationships between variables. The present study showed that FA and BE symptoms are common in the adult sample. The FA, BE and FA + BE groups had higher scores than the control group for all variables included in the study. The FA + BE group presented a significantly higher level of behavioral and emotional symptoms, followed by the FA and the BE group with less severity of symptoms. This study supports the hypothesis of food addiction as a similar construct to BE. FA is a broader concept than BE, but individuals experiencing both indicated the greatest functional difficulties., Competing Interests: Declarations. Competing interests: The authors declare no competing interests. Compliance with ethical standards: The study was approved by the Departmental Ethics Committee (This study was approved by The University of Silesia Ethics Committee (document of approval number: KEUS 245/04.2022, Katowice, Poland). All procedures in the present study were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki Declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards., (© 2025. The Author(s).)

Obesity affects one in eight individuals globally. Overeating, especially high-calorie foods, plays a significant role in obesity. Binge eating disorder (BED) is a complex condition caused by a combination of biological, psychological, and social factors. It involves excessive consumption of high-calorie foods in a short period and is often linked to anxiety and cravings. Here, we present a protocol employing continuous and intermittent access to a new highly palatable food (HPF) -- M&M&#39;s -- to develop a mouse model for investigating binge eating disorder (BED). The HPF, chosen for its high fat and sugar content, represents an optimal food source to study due to its strong palatability, which makes it particularly suited for examining compulsive eating behaviors. Using C57BL/6 mice, we provided continuous or intermittent access to M&M&#39;s while allowing unrestricted access to standard chow and water. By the 8 th day, the mice in the intermittent access group exhibited pronounced binge-eating behaviors, which persisted through the 26 th day. These mice also consumed significantly more calories -- predominantly from the confectionary -- than those in the continuous access and control groups. The contrast between continuous and intermittent access underscores the critical role of feeding schedules in promoting the overconsumption of palatable foods. Furthermore, behavioral assessments revealed intermittent access to the HPF-induced anxiety-like behaviors, highlighting the psychological impact of access patterns on both eating behavior and emotional states. By incorporating these two distinct feeding paradigms, this study offers valuable insights into how the availability of highly palatable foods can exacerbate binge-eating tendencies. This model provides a more realistic approach to studying binge-eating behaviors and their metabolic consequences. It highlights the importance of standardized models in biomedical research. Our findings offer insights into the physiological and neural mechanisms underlying BED, which could pave the way for developing effective therapeutic interventions for BED and obesity.

Objective: Binge eating appears to be associated with impulsivity, especially in response to negative affect (i.e., negative urgency). However, negative urgency is typically assessed via self-report, which captures only some aspects of urgency and may be subject to bias. Few studies have examined impulsivity following experimental manipulations of affect in binge-eating samples., Method: In the present study, individuals who engage in regular binge eating completed a behavioural impulsivity (go/no-go) task with high- and low-calorie food stimuli, once following negative affect induction and once following neutral affect induction., Results: Greater behavioural impulsivity to high-calorie food cues while in a negative (and not a neutral) affective state was associated with more frequent binge-eating behaviour. Further, this behavioural measure of negative urgency uniquely accounted for variance in binge-eating frequency when controlling for self-reported negative urgency, suggesting that behavioural measures may be a useful complement to self-report measures., Discussion: These findings provide novel and compelling evidence for the relationship between negative urgency and binge eating, highlighting negative urgency as a potentially important target for intervention., (© 2024 Eating Disorders Association and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)

Background: Food addiction (FA) research has primarily concentrated on binge eating as a symptom of this condition. However, FA may encompass various overeating behaviours, including compulsive grazing - the repetitive consumption of small amounts of food with loss of control. This study extends our previous research by including a clinical sample to investigate whether compulsive grazing exists in a population with higher prevalence and severity of FA. It also examines whether weight or sex moderates the severity or frequency of FA., Methods: Adults between the ages of 20 and 50 years with obesity were recruited from a weight-management clinic (n = 437). Participants completed an online questionnaire to assess various eating behaviours (binge eating, compulsive grazing, reward-based eating) and related personality measures (impulsivity, addictive personality traits). Multiple and logistic regression modelling were used with the Yale Food Addiction Scale symptom count and diagnosis as the dependent variables, respectively. A chi-square test of independence and an analysis of variance were used to determine sex differences., Results: Compulsive grazing was a significant factor in FA diagnosis and symptom severity, confirming earlier work. Binge eating was a significant factor in FA symptom severity. Additionally, females from a weight-management clinic sample were more likely to receive an FA diagnosis than females from the general population. No sex differences were found in males or in the symptom score option for FA., Conclusions: These findings suggest that various compulsive overeating patterns encompass FA. Individuals with obesity and co-morbid FA may require specialized treatments, which may benefit from sex-specific differentiations., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest None., (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)