TITLE:
Does food addiction distinguish a specific subgroup of overweight/obese overeating women?
AUTHORS:
Catherine Bégin, Marie-ève St-Louis, Sophie Turmel, Béatrice Tousignant, Louis-Philippe Marion, Francine Ferland, Nadine Blanchette-Martin, Marie-Pierre Gagnon-Girouard
KEYWORDS:
Food addiction; Compulsive Overeating; Binge Eating; Addiction
JOURNAL NAME:
Health,
Vol.4 No.12A,
December
31,
2012
ABSTRACT: Neurophysiological
and behavioral similarities have been evidenced between excessive food
consumption leading to obesity and addiction to other substances. In
accordance, food addiction was defined following the DSM-IV diagnostic criteria
for substance dependence. The aim of this pilot study was to identify a
subgroup of women suffering from food
addiction (n = 11), and to compare them to women suffering from substance-use
disorder (n = 23), and to women seeking treatment for compulsive overeating
but free from food addiction (n = 12) on addiction-related characteristics (reward sensitivity, impulsivity, personality traits, depression, emotion dysregulation). We hypothesized that women with food addiction would be
similar to women with substance-use disorders, and different from women with compulsive overeating without food addiction. Participants completed self-reported questionnaires assessing food
addiction and other variables related to addiction. Almost half (47.8%) of
women with compulsive overeating fulfilled the criteria for food addiction. Although
food addiction does not account for every case of compulsive overeating, it
characterizes a specific subgroup of overweight/obese women who show more
severe overeating. Women with food addiction seem to be more similar to women
suffering from substance-use disorders than to other women with overeating
difficulties, particularly regarding impulsivity and self-directedness.