Associations of food addiction and nonsuicidal self-injury among women with an eating disorder: A common strategy for regulating emotions?

Eur Eat Disord Rev. 2018 Nov;26(6):629-637. doi: 10.1002/erv.2646. Epub 2018 Oct 15.

Abstract

Objective: We examined the association between lifetime nonsuicidal self-injury (NSSI), emotion regulation, and food addiction (FA) in women (n = 220) with eating disorders (ED) compared with (n = 121) healthy controls (HC).

Method: Participants were assessed via face-to-face interviews for ED diagnosis and lifetime NSSI. FA was assessed with Yale Food Addiction Scale 2.0 and emotion regulation using the Difficulty in Emotion Regulation Scale (DERS).

Results: The prevalence of FA was significantly higher among women with an ED when compared with HC (75.9% vs. 4.1%, p < 0.001). Similarly, subjects presenting FA showed a high prevalence of lifetime NSSI, in both ED and HC (40.7% and 60.0%, respectively). Our predictive model revealed FA and DERS total scores as indicators of the presence of lifetime NSSI independent of group assignment, ED diagnosis, and age.

Conclusions: These findings suggest a shared aetiology between ED, NSSI, and FA, explained possibly in part by emotion-regulation deficits.

Keywords: eating disorders; food addiction; nonsuicidal self-injury; risk factors; self-harm behaviours.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Adult
  • Case-Control Studies
  • Emotions / physiology
  • Feeding and Eating Disorders / epidemiology*
  • Feeding and Eating Disorders / psychology*
  • Female
  • Food Addiction / epidemiology*
  • Humans
  • Middle Aged
  • Prevalence
  • Self-Injurious Behavior / epidemiology*
  • Young Adult