A primary goal of the Food Addiction Institute is to foster recognition of food as a substance use disorder by the American Psychiatric Association and the World Health Organization. We have many reasons for this, but one is that without a diagnostic code, many health professionals will not screen for it.
Allies of the institute are already engaged with those institutions on winning recognition. But the institute believes enough evidence for one or more food-related substance use disorders already exists to urge health care professionals to add one more question to their intake protocol: “Do you have trouble controlling your weight, eating, and/or consumption of sweets and other food?”
Loss of control is one of 11 criteria for a substance use disorder in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of the American Psychiatric Association. Its presence does not, by itself, trigger a diagnosis. Two or three indicate a mild disorder, four or five indicate a moderate disorder, and any more signify a severe disorder.
But you can’t get to two without one, so it’s a place to start. For patients who answer affirmatively, consider these follow-up questions, adapted from DSM-V drug and alcohol addiction diagnostic criteria as per Behavioral Health Newsletter Vol 32 No 2, Fall, 2014 by HT Wright and J Ifland:
Beginning to look for such symptoms is key because, very conservatively stated, scores of millions in the world experience Food Addiction, and the vast majority don’t know it. How can patients seek appropriate treatment, or even consider appropriate treatment, without knowing the nature of their illness?