Comorbidity of Food Addiction and Behavioral Addictions

Abstract

Abstract Behavioral addictions (BA) are recurrent patterns of behaviors characterized by lack of self-control, compulsive engagement, and craving states that usually lead to negative consequences and frequently present comorbidity for more than one addiction. Gambling disorder (GD) is the only BA included in the in the main section of the 5th edition of the Diagnostic Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5), but there are other behaviors that can also be associated to a BA, such as video game addiction, internet addiction, sexual addiction, compulsive buying, or sports addiction. All these BAs share similar patterns of lack of control over a specific behavior, craving, emotional dysregulation, tolerance, salience, withdrawal, and repetitive engagement in the maladaptive behavior—characteristics also present in food addiction (FA). This chapter summarizes the current evidence about the shared presence of FA and different types of BA. As expected, most of the studies about FA and BA focused on the comorbid presence of FA and GD. Patients diagnosed with GD have a higher risk of presenting FA than the general population. GD and FA may share common transdiagnostic factors that may be favoring the presence of this comorbidity. Current evidence also highlights the common factors of FA with other types of BA, such as internet addiction or sports addiction. Overall, the existing literature provides a preliminary approach to the association between FA and different types of BA; however, further research will be necessary to precisely define the relationships among these conditions.