Psychological, Behavioral, and Pharmacological Treatments for Binge Eating Disorder

Abstract

Abstract Several similarities have been noted between the “loss-of-control” features of binge eating disorder (BED) and behaviors related to substance and non-substance addictions, leading to suggestions that understanding commonalities and divergences from addiction models may be useful to inform treatment approaches for BED. Moreover, a rapidly growing area of research has examined the construct of “food addiction,” which also grew out of clinical observations regarding parallels with substance and non-substance use addiction models. This chapter provides an overview of psychological/behavioral and pharmacological treatments for BED and addictions, and it describes key implications of using an addiction perspective in the treatment of BED. These include consideration of addiction perspectives such as abstinence, harm reduction, and views that BED is a brain-based disease, chronic, and relapsing. Careful consideration and further evaluation are needed to evaluate the relevance of addiction concepts and models for BED treatment.