Oliveira, E., Kim, H. S., Lacroix, E., de Fatima Vasques, M., Durante, C. R., Pereira, D., Cabral, J. R., Bernstein, P. S., Garcia, X., Ritchie, E. V., & Tavares, H. (2020). The Clinical Utility of Food Addiction: Characteristics and Psychosocial Impairments in a Treatment-Seeking Sample. Nutrients, 12
(11). https://doi.org/10.3390/nu12113388
From the research article’s 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.