Emotional Eating, Alexithymia, and Binge‐Eating Disorder in Obese Women

Abstract

PINAQUY, SANDRINE, HENRI CHABROL, CHANTAL SIMON, JEAN-PIERRE LOUVET, AND PIERRE BARBE. Emotional eating, alexithymia, and binge-eating disorder in obese women. Obes Res. 2003;11:195-201. Objective: To investigate the relationships between alexithymia and emotional eating in obese women with or without Binge Eating Disorder (BED). Research Methods and Procedures:One hundred sixtynine obese women completed self-report questionnaires, including the Beck Depression Inventory, the State Trait Anxiety Inventory, the Stress Perceived Scale, the Dutch Eating Behaviour Questionnaire, and the Toronto Alexithymia Scale. The presence of BED, screened using the Questionnaire of Eating and Weight Patterns, was confirmed by interview. Results: Forty obese women were identified as having BED. BED subjects and non-BED subjects were comparable in age, body mass index, educational level, and socioeconomic class. According to the Dutch Eating Behaviour Questionnaire, BED subjects exhibited higher depression, anxiety, perceived stress, alexithymia scores, and emotional and external eating scores than non-BED subjects. Emotional eating and perceived stress emerged as significant predictors of BED. The relationships between alexithymia and emotional eating in obese subjects differed between the two groups according to the presence of BED. Alexithymia was the predictor of emotional eating in BED subjects, whereas perceived stress and depression were the predictors in non-BED subjects. Discussion: This study pointed out different relationships among mood, alexithymia, and emotional eating in obese subjects with or without BED. Alexithymia was linked to emotional eating in BED. These data suggest the involvement of alexithymia in eating disorders among obese women.

Cardiac parasympathetic regulation in obese women with binge eating disorder

“…Problems identifying and expressing emotions make it more difficult for patients with a BED to cope with negative emotions and psychosocial stress. 51 This was supported in the present study by a lower mood rating in reaction to the mental stress tasks. Parasympathetic cardiac regulation during stress has received considerable attention as a physiological marker for emotional processing and self-regulation in recent years.…”

“…Individuals who engage in binge eating appraise challenging situations as more stressful and show greater difficulties managing the emotional consequences of stress, in comparison to subjects without an eating disorder. 4 As in patients with BN, the relationship between negative mood and binge eating pathology has also been reported for individuals with a BED. [5][6][7] Psychophysiological research has greatly advanced our understanding of the importance of the parasympathetic nervous system, in addition to the sympathetic branch, in stress and emotional regulation.…”

Relations between negative affect, coping, and emotional eating

“…Based on results of earlier studies, it was hypothesized that eatingdisordered women, compared to non-eating-disordered women, would report higher levels of negative affect and emotional eating (e.g., Bekker & Boselie, 2002;Cooper & Hunt, 1998;Pinaquy, Chabrol, Simon, Louvet, & Barbe, 2003) and would also score higher on assessment instruments of emotion-oriented coping and avoidance coping strategies (e.g., Kenardy, Arnow, & Agras, 1996;Nagata, Matsuyama, Kiriike, Iketani, & Oshima, 2000;Yager, Rorty, & Rossotto, 1995).…”

Disordered eating behaviours and cognitions in young women with obesity: relationship with psychological status

“…However, this differs for various subgroups within the obese population, such as those seeking treatment, those with co-morbid binge eating and poor body image and those with severe levels of obesity, all whom experience higher levels of psychological distress. [15][16][17][18] Many previous studies on the interface between weight and EDs have relied on treatment seeking, often small clinical samples of people with obesity, for example, 15,[9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22] or have focused on BED [20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27] or ED behaviours only. 4 They have found that binge eating contributes to obesity, that obese people with BED have higher depression, anxiety, eating and weight concerns and poorer quality of life than in other obese subjects; also that poor body image evaluation and negative self schemas relate to depression in obese people and that body image beliefs relate to level of obesity (heavier women are less satisfied with appearance).…”