Fowler, L., Ivezaj, V., & Saules, K. K. (2014). Problematic intake of high-sugar/low-fat… associated with substance use disorders. Eat Behav, 15(3), 505–508. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eatbeh.2014.06.009 From the clinical study’s abstract: “Participants who endorsed pre-surgical problems with High-Sugar were at greater risk for New Onset SUD in the post-surgical period. evidence for the possibility of addiction transfer.”
To eat or not to eat; is that really the question? An evaluation of problematic eating behaviors and mental health among bariatric surgery candidates
Miller-Matero, L. R., Armstrong, R., McCulloch, K., Hyde-Nolan, M., Eshelman, A., & Genaw, J. (2014). To eat or not to eat; is that really the question? An evaluation of problematic eating behaviors and mental health among bariatric surgery candidates. Eating and Weight Disorders – Studies on Anorexia, Bulimia and Obesity, 19(3), 377–382. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40519-014-0118-3 From the research article’s abstract: “Problematic eating behaviors, such as emotional eating, and food addiction, may affect weight; however, little is known about these eating behaviors, especially among those seeking bariatric surgery. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to estimate the prevalence of problematic eating behaviors and to investigate their relationship with other eating behaviors, body mass index (BMI), and psychiatric symptoms. There were 142 patients who completed a required psychiatric evaluation prior to bariatric surgery. Of these, 16.9 % met criteria for a food addiction and 25.4–40.7 % endorsed emotional eating, depending on type of emotional eating. The number of food addiction symptoms endorsed was related to emotional eating. Both food addiction and emotional eating were related to anxiety and depressive symptoms. However, surprisingly, BMI was not related to a food addiction diagnosis, emotional eating scores, or psychiatric symptoms. Results from this study suggest that problematic eating behaviors are occurring among bariatric surgery candidates. Furthermore, this study may help to address the conflicting research regarding the effects of psychiatric symptoms on weight-loss outcomes. Perhaps it is the problematic eating behaviors (e.g., food addiction and emotional eating) that are associated with psychiatric symptoms that could be influencing outcomes.”
Effectiveness of a Web-Based Solution-Focused Brief Chat Treatment for Depressed Adolescents and Young Adults: Randomized Controlled Trial
Kramer, J., Conijn, B., Oijevaar, P., & Riper, H. (2014). Effectiveness of a web-based solution-focused brief chat treatment for depressed adolescents and young adults: randomized controlled trial. Journal of Medical Internet Research, 16(5), e141. https://doi.org/10.2196/jmir.3261 From the research article’s abstract: “Up to 9% of young people suffer from depression. Unfortunately, many in need of help remain untreated. The Internet offers anonymous ways to help depressed youth, especially those who are reluctant to search for help because of fear of stigma. Our goal was to evaluate the effectiveness of an individual chat treatment based on Solution-Focused Brief Therapy (SFBT) to young individuals aged 12-22 years with depressive symptoms by comparing it to a waiting list control group. For this study, 263 young people with depressive symptoms were randomized to the Web-based SFBT intervention, PratenOnline, or to a waiting list control condition. The chat treatment was delivered by trained professionals.
The association of “food addiction” with disordered eating and body mass index
Gearhardt, A. N., et al. (2014). The association of “food addiction” with disordered eating and body mass index. Eat Behav, 15(3), 427–433. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eatbeh.2014.05.001 From the clinical study’s results: “FA was higher in participants with BN than in those with binge eating disorder (BED). “Food addiction” continued to be related to clinically relevant variables, especially elevated BMI, even when participants did not meet criteria for BED or BN.”
Overlap of food addiction and substance use disorders definitions: Analysis of animal and human studies
Hone-Blanchet, A., & Fecteau, S. (2014). Overlap of food addiction and substance use disorders definitions: analysis of animal and human studies. Neuropharmacology, 85, 81–90. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuropharm.2014.05.019 From the literature review’s highlights: “Animal models of overeating and compulsive eating do not explicitly describe human SUDs and animal and human findings do not entirely overlap.”
Overlap of food addiction and substance use disorders definitions: Analysis of animal and human studies
Hone-Blanchet, A., & Fecteau, S. (2014). Overlap of food addiction and substance use disorders definitions: analysis of animal and human studies. Neuropharmacology, 85, 81–90. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuropharm.2014.05.019 From the research article’s abstract: “Food has both homeostatic and hedonic components, which makes it a potent natural reward. Food related reward could therefore promote an escalation of intake and trigger symptoms associated to withdrawal, suggesting a behavioral parallel with substance abuse. Animal and human theoretical models of food reward and addiction have emerged, raising further interrogations on the validity of a bond between Substance Use Disorders, as clinically categorized in the DSM 5, and food reward. These models propose that highly palatable food items, rich in sugar and/or fat, are overly stimulating to the brain’s reward pathways. Moreover, studies have also investigated the possibility of causal link between food reward and the contemporary obesity epidemic, with obesity being potentiated and maintained due to this overwhelming food reward. Although natural rewards are a hot topic in the definition and categorization of Substance Use Disorders, proofs of concept and definite evidence are still inconclusive. This review focuses on available results from experimental studies in animal and human models exploring the concept of food addiction, in an effort to determine if it depicts a specific phenotype and if there is truly a neurobiological similarity between food addiction and Substance Use Disorders. It describes results from sugar, fat and sweet-fat bingeing in rodent models, and behavioral and neurobiological assessments in different human populations. Although pieces of behavioral and neurobiological evidence supporting a food addiction phenotype in animals and humans are interesting, it seems premature to conclude on its validity.”
Bariatric surgery-induced weight loss causes remission of food addiction in extreme obesity
Pepino, M. Y., Stein, R. I., Eagon, J. C., & Klein, S. (2014). Bariatric surgery-induced weight loss causes remission of food addiction in extreme obesity. Obesity, 22(8), 1792–1798. https://doi.org/10.1002/oby.20797 From the research article’s abstract: “Objective: To test the hypotheses that bariatric surgery-induced weight loss: 1 induces remission of food addiction (FA), and 2 normalizes other eating behaviors associated with FA. Methods: Forty-four obese subjects (BMI= 48 ± 8 kg/m2) were studied before and after ∼20% weight loss induced by bariatric surgery (25 Roux-en-Y gastric bypass, 11 laparoscopic adjustable gastric banding, and eight sleeve gastrectomy). We assessed: 1 FA (Yale Food Addiction Scale), 2 food cravings (Food Craving Inventory), and 3 restrictive, emotional and external eating behaviors (Dutch Eating Behavior Questionnaire). Results: FA was identified in 32% of subjects before surgery. Compared with non-FA subjects, those with FA craved foods more frequently, and had higher scores for emotional and external eating behaviors (all P-values <0.01; all Cohen’s d >0.8). Surgery-induced weight loss resulted in remission of FA in 93% of FA subjects; no new cases of FA developed after surgery.
Food cravings, appetite, and snack-food consumption in response to a psychomotor stimulant drug: the moderating effect of “food-addiction”
Davis, C., et al. (2014). Food addiction and its association with a dopaminergic multilocus genetic profile. Physiology and Behavior. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00403 From the experimental study’s abstract: “The finding that the food-addiction group was resistant to the food-intake suppression typically induced by a dopamine agonist supports evidence of dopamine signaling-strength differences.”
Validation of the French version of the Yale Food Addiction Scale: an examination of its factor structure, reliability, and construct validity in a nonclinical sample
Brunault, P., Ballon, N., Gaillard, P., Reveillere, C., & Courtois, R. (2014). Validation of the French version of the Yale Food Addiction Scale: an examination of its factor structure, reliability, and construct validity in a nonclinical sample. Can J Psychiatry, 59(5), 276-284. https://doi.org/10.1177/070674371405900507 Conclusion: “In our study, we validated a psychometrically sound French version of the YFAS, both in its symptom count and diagnostic version.”
Development of the Modified Yale Food Addiction Scale Version 2.0
Schulte, E. M., & Gearhardt, A. N. (2017). Development of the Modified Yale Food Addiction Scale Version 2.0. European Eating Disorders Review, 25(4), 302-308. https://doi.org/10.1002/erv.2515 From the research article’s abstract: “The Yale Food Addiction Scale (YFAS) operationalizes indicators of addictive-like eating, originally based on the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders 4th edition Text Revision (DSM-IV-TR) criteria for substance-use disorders. The YFAS has multiple adaptations, including a briefer scale (mYFAS). Recently, the YFAS 2.0 was developed to reflect changes to diagnostic criteria in the DSM-5. The current study developed a briefer version of the YFAS 2.0 (mYFAS 2.0) using the participant sample from the YFAS 2.0 validation paper (n = 536). Then, in an independent sample recruited from Mechanical Turk, 213 participants completed the mYFAS 2.0, YFAS 2.0, and measures of eating-related constructs in order to evaluate the psychometric properties of the mYFAS 2.0, relative to the YFAS 2.0.