Abstract
In recent years, there has been a growing focus on early maladaptive schemas (EMSs) as core features associated with eating psychopathology. The aims of the present study were to assess in overweight and obese women: (i) the association between dysfunctional eating patterns (i.e., food addiction and binge eating) and EMSs, and (ii) the association between food addiction and EMSs after controlling for potential confounding variables (i.e., binge eating severity and psychopathology). Participants were 70 overweight and obese women seeking low-energy-diet therapy. The patients were administered self-report measures investigating food addiction, binge eating, EMSs, anxiety symptoms, and depressive symptoms. Food addiction severity was strongly associated with all main schema domains. Binge eating severity was positively related to disconnection/rejection (r = 0.41; p < 0.01), impaired limits (r = 0.26; p < 0.05), and other-directedness domains (r = 0.27; p < 0.05). The disconnection/rejection schema was independently associated with food addiction severity, after controlling for the presence of other potential confounding variables (i.e., binge eating severity and psychopathology) suggesting that this domain may be a crucial factor for the development of food addiction.
Highlights
Obesity (i.e., body mass index (BMI) ≥ 30 kg/m2 ) and being overweight (BMI ≥ 25 kg/m2 ) are widespread medical conditions, caused by multiple and different factors [1], and they have recently become a serious problem in developed countries [2]
food addiction (FA) symptoms were strongly associated with binge eating severity (r = 0.63; p < 0.01), the five dimensions of YSQ-L3 (r > 0.39), and with both depressive symptom severity (r = 0.43; p < 0.01), and anxiety symptom severity (r = 0.31; p < 0.01)
On the YSQ-L3, binge eating severity was positively associated with disconnection/rejection (r = 0.41; p < 0.01), impaired limits (r = 0.26; p < 0.05), and other-directedness domains (r = 0.27; p < 0.05)
Summary
Obesity (i.e., body mass index (BMI) ≥ 30 kg/m2 ) and being overweight (BMI ≥ 25 kg/m2 ) are widespread medical conditions, caused by multiple and different factors (e.g., genetic and psychosocial variables) [1], and they have recently become a serious problem in developed countries [2]. In the last few years, the construct of food addiction (FA) has been described as a disordered eating behavior frequently observed in both obese and overweight patients, with a prevalence of roughly 25% (for a review and meta-analysis on FA prevalence, see [7]). FA has been conceptualized as a chronic and relapsing condition characterized by intense cravings for hyper-palatable foods as well as other typical symptoms of substance-related and addictive disorders Nutrients 2017, 9, 1259 symptoms) [8] This concept was originally introduced to better understand abnormal eating patterns in obese and overweight patients [9,10], FA is frequently diagnosed in healthy-weight individuals (about 11%) and in patients with EDs (about 58%) [7]. It has been recently hypothesized that FA may exist as a trans-nosographic construct in obese and overweight patients as well as in all ED patients, especially in those with BED and bulimia nervosa [16,17]
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