Abstract
The tendency to act on immediate pleasure-driven desires, due to the devaluation of future rewards [a process known as temporal discounting (TD)], has been associated with substance use disorders (SUD) and with conditions characterised by compulsive overeating. The study involved a large inclusive participant sample (i.e., no diagnostic or exclusion criteria were applied). They were recruited/assessed online and we investigated whether TD was related to compulsive overeating and associated problems. Participants [N = 432, (48 males)] completed an online survey, which included a hypothetical monetary TD task, the Eating Disorder Examination-Questionnaire (EDE-Q), the Yale Food Addiction Scale (YFAS) and the Depression Anxiety and Stress Scales (DASS). TD correlated with frequency of compulsive overeating and compensatory behaviours, with eating disorder psychopathology, with scores on the YFAS, and with body mass index (BMI). As our study shows that elevated rates of TD are associated with a range of behaviours/measures, we propose that it is more likely that elevated TD rates are a predisposing factor rather than a consequence of the behaviour, i.e., elevated rates of TD contribute to pathological eating-related behaviours; however, a bi-directional explanation is also possible. Future research should investigate whether interventions aimed at reducing TD have clinical potential for treating problematic eating behaviours.
Highlights
Compulsive overeating, binge-eating, and loss-of-control eating are behaviours used to describe the aberrant patterns of feeding that characterise the binge-purge subtype of anorexia nervosa (AN), bulimia nervosa (BN), binge-eating disorder (BED) and some forms of obesity compulsive overeating is not a diagnosis, rather, it is an umbrella term in common parlance
It refers to excessive food consumption that is accompanied by a perceived loss of control (LOC) over intake—not necessarily in a discrete period of time, as per binge-eating disorder (BED) [1]
This study was approved by the King's College London (KCL) Nursing and Midwifery Research Ethics Subcommittee, and data were obtained in compliance with KCL regulations
Summary
Compulsive overeating, binge-eating, and loss-of-control eating are behaviours used to describe the aberrant patterns of feeding that characterise the binge-purge subtype of anorexia nervosa (AN), bulimia nervosa (BN), binge-eating disorder (BED) and some forms of obesity compulsive overeating is not a diagnosis, rather, it is an umbrella term in common parlance. People who compulsively overeat report experiencing intense food cravings; food is often consumed in larger amounts than intended; unsuccessful efforts to cut down or control one's overeating are commonplace; lastly, dysregulated eating continues despite knowledge of it being a physical or psychological problem that is likely to have been caused by this behaviour. Neurocognitive similarities exist between people who are compulsive overeaters and substance abusers Both groups appear to have deficits in temporal discounting (TD)—an aspect of impulse control defined as “the observed tendency for the value of reinforcers to decrease as a function of the delay to their delivery” [17]. We predicted these relationships would be independent of differences in demographic (age, sex, income, and education) and clinical (depression, anxiety, and stress) factors reported to influence TD behaviour [39,40,41,42,43,44,45]
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
