About Binge Eating Disorder

Binge eating disorder is a complex disorder with many symptoms, associated complications, causes and risk factors. An estimated 3.5% of American women and 2% of American men have binge eating disorder.*

Characteristics
While the American Psychiatric Association’s (APA) Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), does not yet have a specific category for binge eating disorder, it does list diagnostic criteria.**

According to the DSM-IV, binge eating disorder is characterized by several behavioral and emotional signs.

• Recurrent episodes of binge eating occurring at least twice a week for six months
• eating a larger amount of food than normal during a short time frame (any two-hour period)
• lack of control over eating during the binge episode (e.g., feeling you can’t stop eating or control what or how much you are eating)

Binge eating episodes are associated with three or more of the following:

• Eating until feeling uncomfortably full
• Eating large amounts of food when not physically hungry
• Eating much more rapidly than normal
• Eating alone because you are embarrassed by how much you're eating
• Feeling disgusted, depressed, or guilty after overeating

In addition:

• Marked distress regarding binge eating is also present
• Binge eating is not associated with the regular use of inappropriate compensatory behavior (such as purging, excessive exercise, etc.) and does not occur exclusively during the course of bulimia nervosa or anorexia nervosa

*The Prevalence and Correlates of Eating Disorders in the National Comorbidity Survey Replication. Hudson, J.I.; Hiripi, E.; Pope, Jr., H.G.; Kessler, R.C. Biological Psychiatry 2007; 61:348-358.

** DSM-IV, Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, fourth edition, Washington D.C.: American Psychiatric Association, 1994.

Complications
People who are obese and also have binge eating disorder are at risk for several potentially life-threatening complications, including:

• type 2 diabetes
• high blood pressure
  
• high blood cholesterol
  
• gallbladder disease
  
• heart disease
  
• certain types of cancer
  
• osteoarthritis
  
• joint and muscle pain
  
• gastrointestinal problems
  
• depression
  
• anxiety
  
• sleep apnea

Causes and risk factors
While the exact causes are unknown, several factors are thought to play a part in binge eating disorder, including:

• biological/genetic
  
• psychological
  
• sociocultural

Professionals are also still trying to determine what risk factors could potentially result in developing binge eating disorder. However, they may include:

• dieting
  
• psychological factors
• sociocultural factors