The majority of professionally active women diagnosed with eating disorders may be at risk of work addiction: an overlooked comorbidity

Abstract

health psychology report •  original article background Work addiction (WA) has been previously linked to several diseases and disorders, but there is scarce literature on its association with eating disorders (EDs). Both WA and EDs share similar etiological factors (notably rigid perfectionism) and clinical features. The aim of this study was to provide an initial overview of the literature on this potential comorbidity, and investigate the co-occurrence of EDs and WA, and their relationship with sociodemographic and work-related variables, health, and personality.

Compulsive Study Behaviors Are Associated with Eating Disorders and Have Independent Negative Effects on Well-Being: A Structural Equation Model Study among Young Musicians

“…Similar to work addiction, study addiction shows comorbidities with a host of other mental health problems, including substantial co-occurrences with other addictive behaviors [25,26], depression, anxiety, and social anxiety [14,24,27]. Following previous findings on the association between compulsive working and food-starving and food-binging behaviors [28][29][30], a recent study showed considerable comorbidity between work addiction and EDs [13]. This is particularly true in the case of anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa, where as many as five out of six women previously diagnosed with EDs fulfilled the cut-off score for work addiction.…”

“…While compulsive overworking is typically associated with behaviors related to professional work, eating disorders (EDs), especially anorexia nervosa (AN), are an important cause of unemployment and result in severe work impairment [11,12]. At the same time, these two classes of problematic behaviors are closely related, due to the shared risk factors (e.g., rigid perfectionism), similar clinical manifestations (e.g., excessive controlling behaviors), and consequences (e.g., physical exhaustion and depression [13]). This study aimed to examine the hypotheses that compulsive study behaviors are related to EDs, and that they have independent negative effects on well-being.…”

“…Such substantial co-occurrence may be due to the significant similarities between these problematic behaviors' risk factors and clinical manifestations. The main common features of work addiction, anorexia nervosa, and bulimia nervosa include a high need for control and the use of particular behaviors to cope with stress and underlying problems [13,31]. These problematic behaviors are also highly associated with mood disorders, perfectionism, OCPD, and personality traits such as neuroticism and competitiveness [10,12,[32][33][34][35].…”

“…Stress is also known to affect appetite and food intake, so students addicted to studying may purposefully increase their stress, via excessive learning behaviors and long hours of studying, to down-regulate their food cravings. A detailed analysis of the possible mutual relationships between compulsive overworking and EDs, together with a comprehensive literature overview, can be found in [13].…”

“…Previous research has used the former clinical diagnoses of EDs [13]. However, the low prevalence of anorexia nervosa or bulimia nervosa makes it challenging to investigate the more nuanced aspects of their relationship with work-related compulsive behaviors and well-being.…”