Psychosocial Interventions for Food Addiction: a Systematic Review

The current systematic review examined the empirical literature on psychosocial interventions for food addiction with the goal of providing recommendations for clinical practice and future research. A PsycINFO and PubMed search of publications was conducted in September 2019. Two authors assessed retrieved titles and abstracts to determine topic relevance and rated the quality of the included studies using an established checklist. Eight studies met the study inclusion criteria, and study quality ranged from “poor” to “fair”. Most studies were pilot and feasibility studies with limitations that impact the conclusions that can be drawn. There are currently no empirically supported psychosocial interventions for food addiction. Additional research is warranted to develop and test the efficacy of interventions for food addiction. In the meantime, it is recommended that clinicians treating food addiction assess for comorbid eating disorders, and if present, first provide evidence-based treatments for those conditions.