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Objective Substance use disorder is highly prevalent among individuals with mental disorders. However, it remains largely unknown whether this is also the case for “food addiction”—a phenotype characterized by an addiction‐like attraction to predominantly highly processed foods with a high content of refined carbohydrates and fat. Therefore, the primary aim of this study was to estimate the weighted prevalence of food addiction among individuals with mental disorders. Method A total of 5,000 individuals aged 18–62 were randomly drawn from eight categories of major mental disorders from the Danish Psychiatric Central Research Register and invited to participate in an online questionnaire‐based survey, which included the Yale Food Addiction Scale 2.0. Data on health care and sociodemographics from the Danish registers were linked to all invitees—enabling comprehensive attrition analysis and calculation of the weighted prevalence of food addiction. Results A total of 1,394 (27.9%) invitees participated in the survey. Across all diagnostic categories, 23.7% met the criteria for food addiction. The weighted prevalence of food addiction was highest among individuals with eating disorders (47.7%, 95%CI: 41.2–54.2), followed by affective disorders (29.4%, 95%CI: 22.9–36.0) and personality disorders (29.0%, 95%CI: 22.2–35.9). When stratifying on sex, the prevalence of food addiction was higher among women in most diagnostic categories. Discussion Food addiction is highly prevalent among individuals with mental disorders, especially in those with eating disorders, affective disorders and personality disorders. Food addiction may be an important target for efforts aimed at reducing obesity among individuals with mental disorders.

Background:Obesity represents a tremendous global health problem. Studies over the past decade have suggested that food addiction (FA), that is, physical cravings for certain foods – high in fat/sugar – and addiction-like overeating of these types of food, is a likely contributor to the obesity epidemic. While FA has been studied extensively, there are some significant gaps in the literature that need to be addressed: (I) Most estimates of the prevalence of FA are based on nonprobability sampling, which significantly limits the representativeness of the prevalence estimates. (II) Although addiction disorders are prevalent among individuals with mental disorders, large studies of FA among patients with clinically diagnosed mental disorders are lacking. (III) Most addiction disorders are heritable, but the familial transmission of FA remains virtually unknown. (IV) Due to a relative lack of longitudinal studies, little is known about the risk factors for and outcomes of FA. To close these gaps in the literature, we designed the Food Addiction Denmark (FADK) Project.Methods:The FADK study is a nationwide survey with retrospective and prospective register-based elements. Four randomly sampled cohorts were invited to participate in the survey: 5000 adults and 3750 adolescents from the general population and 5000 adults and 3529 adolescents with a mental disorder. The FADK questionnaire includes the Yale Food Addiction Scale 2.0 and rating scales measuring psychopathology. Data from Danish health and socio-economic registers will be linked to all invitees.Discussion:We expect that the FADK Project will contribute significantly to our understanding of FA.