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Hedonic hunger and binge eating among women with eating disorders
This 2014 was the first in its time to investigate hedonic hunger (appetitive drive to eat for pleasure rather than hunger) among individuals with eating disorders. Hedonic hunger has been associated with overeating and uncontrolled overeating. Witt & Lowe therefore gathered a sample of patients with anorexia nervosa, restricting type (AN-R), anorexia nervosa, binge-purge type (AN-B/P), and bulimia nervosa (BN), and assessed the participants on hedonic hunger using the Power of Food Scale (PFS). The aims of the study included evaluating the relationship between PFS scores and frequency of binge eating and determining whether baseline PFS scores could be used to predict weight change during treatment. Individuals with bulimia nervosa scored higher on the PFS (hedonic hunger measure) compared to anorexia nervosa sufferers of either type (restricting and binge-purge), although those with binge-purge type appeared to score higher than than those with restring type anorexia. In uncontrolled and controlled analysis models, greater PFS scores were found to correlate with more frequent binge eating among patients with bulimia. A similar pattern was also observed among subjects with anorexia. Finally, PFS scores predicted alterations in weight in anorexic participants but not in bulimic patients. These findings suggest that hedonic processes may have vital roles in triggering binge eating, and that there may be potential in managing hedonic appetite in weight management among people with anorexia. [NPID: craving, hedonic hunger, appetite, eating disorders, overeating, binge eating, anorexia, bulimia]
Year: 2014
