Study of Disturbed Eating Behaviors in Children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder

ABSTRACT Background There is emergent evidence that disturbed eating behaviors, including emotional eating and obesity, co-occur with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in children. The current study aims to examine the link between ADHD symptoms, eating behaviors and obesity in ADHD children. Patients and Methods 50 ADHD children diagnosed by Conners scale were included. They completed the Emotional Eating scale adapted for children (ESS-C) to evaluate eating in response to emotions. Parents completed the Children’s Eating Behavior Questionnaire (CEBQ) to assess children’s eating behavior. Multivariable regression analysis was used to detect the most independent factor for higher Body mass Index (BMI) risk. Results: Higher rates of overweight/obesity were detected among ADHD children than among normal population. Also, higher Conners global index was associated with higher BMI z-scores. Both Inattentive and combined types were linked to higher BMI, while hyperactive type with lower BMI. Regarding eating behaviors, a positive association between food approach and BMI, and a negative association between food avoidant and BMI z-scores was found. Similarly, there was a noteworthy positive relation between emotional overeating and BMI. 68% of ADHD children were high emotional eaters, mainly inattentive and combined types. Others, mainly hyperactive type, were low emotional eaters. Only ESS-C total score was confirmed as independent factor for higher BMI risk. Conclusion Our findings provide evidence that emotional overeating and food approach eating behaviors are common among ADHD children with higher BMI associated with them. Future studies for better understanding of this overlap will enhance potential interventions.

Body Image and Disturbed Eating Attitudes Among Adolescents

Among all the psychiatric conditions, eating disorders has the highest mortality rates and most of the sufferers are adolescents. As the standards for beauty and attraction are changing and creating a bigger gap between actual and ideal body images resulting in dissatisfied, striving individuals to attain ideal body weight and shape. The current study is intended to explore the impact of closely related but discrete aspects of body image on disturbed eating attitudes among adolescents in Pakistan. Schools and universities were selected through convenient sampling, based on cross sectional research study involved 300 students of 15-20 years (M = 17.23, SD = 1.42) who completed the Eating Attitudes Test and Multidimensional Body-Self Relations Questionnaires. Analyses revealed that the adolescents with disturbed eating attitudes had scored significantly more on cognitive and affective components of body image that is overweight preoccupation and dissatisfaction with their body parts when compared to adolescents with normal eating patterns. Findings of this study are consistent with the existing literature in western culture that suggests that Preoccupation with weight and shape and body dissatisfaction is a risk factor for disturbed eating attitudes among adolescents.

Exploring Patterns of Disturbed Eating in Psychosis: A Scoping Review

Disturbed eating behaviours have been widely reported in psychotic disorders since the early 19th century. There is also evidence that antipsychotic (AP) treatment may induce binge eating or other related compulsive eating behaviours. It is therefore possible that abnormal eating patterns may contribute to the significant weight gain and other metabolic disturbances observed in patients with psychosis. In this scoping review, we aimed to explore the underlying psychopathological and neurobiological mechanisms of disrupted eating behaviours in psychosis spectrum disorders and the role of APs in this relationship. A systematic search identified 35 studies that met our eligibility criteria and were included in our qualitative synthesis. Synthesizing evidence from self-report questionnaires and food surveys, we found that patients with psychosis exhibit increased appetite and craving for fatty food, as well as increased caloric intake and snacking, which may be associated with increased disinhibition. Limited evidence from neuroimaging studies suggested that AP-naïve first episode patients exhibit similar neural processing of food to healthy controls, while chronic AP exposure may lead to decreased activity in satiety areas and increased activity in areas associated with reward anticipation. Overall, this review supports the notion that AP use can lead to disturbed eating patterns in patients, which may contribute to AP-induced weight gain. However, intrinsic illness-related effects on eating behaviors remain less well elucidated, and many confounding factors as well as variability in study designs limits interpretation of existing literature in this field and precludes firm conclusions from being made.

Food Attention Bias Appetite Comes with Eating

Objective: Cognitive interventions may be effective in weight loss. The purpose of this study was to assess if cognitive reappraisal (CR; reframing the meaning of a stimulus in order to change the resulting emotional response), can reduce food attentional bias (FAB) using the Visual Dot Probe (VDP) paradigm. Method: 126 participants (age 27±5.8) were randomly assigned either to a CR or to a control (CN) group. After assessing baseline VDP levels for FAB, participants either wrote sentences that discourage eating fattening food or neutral sentences. Next, all participants performed the VDP post intervention. Participants also self-reported on disturbed eating behaviors and their height and weight were charted. We hypothesized that CR would reduce FAB and that disturbed eating would moderate the association between group and FAB. Results: FAB decreased post intervention, specifically in the CR group. The bulimia sub-scale showed an interaction between bulimic eating, time and group. Among those who were high on the bulimia scale, the CR group showed lower FAB post-intervention compared to the CN group. Discussion: This study suggests that CR may decrease the attentional bias toward high-calorie food compared to other strategies in the general population and among people with high bulimia measures, in particular.

The relationship between disturbed Eating behavior and Substance abuse in an Egyptian sample

Background Substance use disorder (SUD) is a significant public health concern and the comorbidity between eating disorders also, substance use disorders (SUDs) in general have been sought in causal or common etiology. Personality traits have been suggested as shared influences on both of them .Early screening for risk factors for the development of co-occurring eating disorders and substance use disorder as well as sociocultural factors can improve the prognosis of patients Aim of the work to estimate the occurrence of disturbed eating behavior in patients with substance use disorder. Subjects and Methods The present study is a cross sectional observational study aimed to investigate the relation between disturbed eating behavior and the severity of substance abuse in patients with substance use disorder. Illustrate the Association between disturbed eating behavior and the severity of substance. Results The results are divided in to 2 parts: Descriptive part of the socio demographic data, disturbed eating behaviors and analytical part consists of relation between disturbed eating behavior and socio demographic data, as well as relation between addiction severity and sociodemographic data, and finally between disturbed eating behaviors and addiction severity index. Conclusion As the duration of SUD increases the interparental conflicts and interparental violence increases which increases the risk of internalizing, externalizing and total behavioral problems among their children.

Body Image and Disturbed Eating Attitudes and Behaviors in Sport-Involved Adolescents: The Role of Gender and Sport Characteristics

Disordered eating in adolescents who participate in sports is an issue of great concern. However, very few studies have examined the prevalence of sport-related determinants of disturbed eating attitudes and behaviours (DEABs) in sport-involved adolescents. The present study aims to assess body image and DEABs in the sample of adolescents involved in a sport of different characteristics (competitive sport, leisure sport; weight-sensitive and less-weight-sensitive sport) and to compare the results with those of the controls. A total sample of 732 adolescents (437 (59.4%) were female) participated in the study. The participants ranged in age from 16 to 19 years (mean = 17.2, SD = 0.6). Study participants completed a questionnaire assessing sports characteristics, body image, disordered eating, and health-compromising eating behaviours. Analysis of covariance was used to test the differences of major study variables between controls and weight-sensitive and less-weight-sensitive leisure and competitive sports groups. There was no significant difference observed in DEABs between the sports groups. Competitive athletes reported more satisfaction with body image than controls. The girls participating in weight-sensitive leisure sports reported higher overweight preoccupation and greater DEABs compared to those participating in less-weight-sensitive leisure sports. Boys participating in weight-sensitive leisure sports reported a greater drive for muscularity-related behaviour compared to those participating in less-weight-sensitive leisure sports. There was no observed interaction between gender and weight sensitivity in the competitive sports group. Adolescents involved in a competitive sport demonstrated greater body image satisfaction and did not seem to present a greater risk for DEABs than controls. Special prevention attempts for lowering body image concerns and DEABs should be addressed for adolescents participating in a weight-sensitive leisure sports.