The Latest Research

 Since I started 2022 with an effort to control my binging rather than focussing on dieting, I thought it might be interesting to review the research thatś been going on this year.  And, wow, there have been thousands of studies in 2022 alone.

So I did a Google.Scholar search on BED research and got this nice list of current research.
Hereś a nice little abstract of one:

Binge eating disorder (BED) is characterized by regular binge eating episodes during which individuals ingest comparably large amounts of food and experience loss of control over their eating behaviour. The worldwide prevalence of BED for the years 2018–2020 is estimated to be 0.6–1.8% in adult women and 0.3–0.7% in adult men. BED is commonly associated with obesity and with somatic and mental health comorbidities. People with BED experience considerable burden and impairments in quality of life, and, at the same time, BED often goes undetected and untreated. The aetiology of BED is complex, including genetic and environmental factors as well as neuroendocrinological and neurobiological contributions. Neurobiological findings highlight impairments in reward processing, inhibitory control and emotion regulation in people with BED, and these neurobiological domains are targets for emerging treatment approaches. Psychotherapy is the first-line treatment for BED... 

(Giel, K.E., Bulik, C.M., Fernandez-Aranda, F. et al. Binge eating disorder. Nat Rev Dis Primers 8, 16 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41572-022-00344-y)

 

The studies seemed to be focussing on evaluation of current definiion and treatment methodology. I read nothing surprising except a suggestion that BED is related to ADHD and impulse control issues. Otherwise, it seems that psychotherapudic interventions are still the most effective and drug and diet control interventions not effective. Faulty body image is a big part of BED. Happily, I dont have THAT; instead, I tend to see myself thin hahahahaha.

There was a suggestion that inhibitory control training (ICT) may be beneficial and that childhood emotional abuse may contribute to the problem--duh. 

But the saddest conclusion I encountered was that BED episodes are preceeded by negative feelings which the binging aleviates; thus binging is negative REINFORCEMENT of itself!!