Schulte, E. M., Wadden, T. A., & Allison, K. C. (2020). An evaluation of food addiction as a distinct psychiatric disorder. International Journal of Eating Disorders, 53
(10), 1610-1622. https://doi.org/10.1002/eat.23350
From the research article’s abstract: “Objective: To evaluate the state of the literature for whether food addiction may warrant consideration as a distinct psychiatric disorder in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM) using Blashfield et al.’s (1990; Comprehensive Psychiatry, 31(1), 15–19) five criteria. This framework was utilized because it has recently been applied to examine the diagnostic utility of several eating disorder phenotypes. The criteria are: (a) at least 50 journal articles published on the proposed syndrome in the past 10 years; (b) proposal of diagnostic criteria and assessment measures; (c) clinician reliability in diagnosis; (d) cohesiveness of the proposed diagnostic criteria; and (e) differentiation from similar, existing diagnostic categories. Method: For each criterion, a literature review was conducted to examine if the minimum qualification had been met, and key findings were discussed.