Food Addiction Is Associated with Binge Eating and Psychiatric Distress among Post-Operative Bariatric Surgery Patients and May Improve in Response to Cognitive Behavioural Therapy

Abstract

The current study examined clinical correlates of food addiction among post-operative bariatric surgery patients, compared the clinical characteristics of patients with versus without food addiction, and examined whether a brief telephone-based cognitive behavioural therapy (Tele-CBT) intervention improves food addiction symptomatology among those with food addiction. Participants (N = 100) completed measures of food addiction, binge eating, depression, and anxiety 1 year following bariatric surgery, were randomized to receive either Tele-CBT or standard bariatric post-operative care, and then, repeated the measure of food addiction at 1.25 and 1.5 years following surgery. Thirteen percent of patients exceeded the cut-off for food addiction at 1 year post-surgery, and this subgroup of patients reported greater binge eating characteristics and psychiatric distress compared to patients without food addiction. Among those with food addiction, Tele-CBT was found to improve food addiction symptomatology immediately following the intervention. These preliminary findings suggest that Tele-CBT may be helpful, at least in the short term, in improving food addiction symptomatology among some patients who do not experience remission of food addiction following bariatric surgery; however, these findings require replication in a larger sample.

Meeting of Minds around Food Addiction: Insights from Addiction Medicine, Nutrition, Psychology, and Neurosciences

“…Other initiatives can be applied in the context of FA, such as acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) [ 148 ]. A wide range of motivational interviewing and cognitive behavioral therapies (CBT), which requires patients to critically evaluate the thoughts, feelings, and behaviors resulting in maladaptive responses and helps them to find their own solutions, adapted to their daily lives, can also be implemented in the context of FA and have already demonstrated their usefulness [ 149 ]. Such results must be replicated on larger cohorts and in the long term, and different types of CBT should be compared to provide recommendations about matching strategies to individual profiles, depending on their personality traits and susceptibilities, for example.…”

Are eHealth interventions for adults who are scheduled for or have undergone bariatric surgery as effective as usual care? A systematic review

“…Studies were conducted in Australia and New Zealand (n 5 4) [42][43][44][45], Canada (n 5 4) [46][47][48][49], Europe (n 5 3 studies, reported across 5 publications) [50][51][52][53][54], the United States (n 5 2 studies, reported across 3 publications) [55][56][57], and Korea (n 5 1) [58]. Among the studies, 10 were conducted as RCTs (reported across 13 publications) [43][44][45][46][47]49,[51][52][53][54][55][56][57], 3 were controlled before and after studies [42,48,50], and 1 was a quasi-experimental design [58]. The majority of the study settings were tertiary or public hospitals (n 5 8 studies, reported across 9 publications) [42][43][44][48][49][50]52,53,58].…”

“…Among the studies, 10 were conducted as RCTs (reported across 13 publications) [43][44][45][46][47]49,[51][52][53][54][55][56][57], 3 were controlled before and after studies [42,48,50], and 1 was a quasi-experimental design [58]. The majority of the study settings were tertiary or public hospitals (n 5 8 studies, reported across 9 publications) [42][43][44][48][49][50]52,53,58]. Two were conducted in a medical or local center (reported across 4 publications) [51,[54][55][56], 1 in a public health service [47], 1 study was not sitespecific and recruited via social media [45], and 2 studies did not report the setting [46,57].…”

Advances and Future Directions in the Clinical Utility of Food Addiction

“…This special issue presents a collection of articles, contributed by renowned experts, researchers, and clinicians spanning different disciplines, that adds to the knowledge on the clinical utility of food addiction and eating addiction. The articles in this collection include reviews [ 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 ] as well as original research utilizing a variety of methodologies and study designs such as clinical trials [ 6 , 7 , 8 ], cross-sectional studies [ 9 , 10 ], and surveys [ 11 ].…”

“…A number of authors contributed papers to this special issue that emphasize the need for individual-level and societal-level interventions for food addiction. In a sample of post-operative bariatric surgery patients, Cassin et al [ 6 ] found that those with food addiction reported greater binge eating characteristics and psychiatric distress relative to those without, and there was preliminary evidence that a brief telephone-based cognitive behavioural therapy intervention may lead to short-term improvement in food addiction symptoms. Two other studies examined food addiction in the context of behavioural weight loss programs.…”