Bulimics' responses to food cravings: is binge-eating a product of hunger or emotional state?

• Published in: Behaviour research and therapy 2001-08, Vol.39 (8), p.877-886
• Main Authors: Waters, Anne, Hill, Andrew, Waller, Glenn
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adult; Adult and adolescent clinical studies; Affect; Appetite; Arousal; Behavior; Behavior Therapy; Binge-eating; Biological and medical sciences; Bulimia; Bulimia - diagnosis; Bulimia - psychology; Bulimia - therapy; Bulimia nervosa; Eating; Eating behavior disorders; Emotions; Female; Food cravings; Food Preferences - psychology; Humans; Hunger; Internal-External Control; Medical sciences; Motivation; Prospective Studies; Psychology; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychopathology. Psychiatry
• ISSN: 0005-7967; 1873-622X
• DOI: 10.1016/S0005-7967(00)00059-0

This study examined the roles of hunger, food craving and mood in the binge-eating episodes of bulimic patients, and identified the critical factors involved in the processes surrounding binge-eating episodes that follow cravings. This was a prospective study of the binge-eating behaviour of 15 women with bulimia nervosa. The participants used food intake diaries and Craving Records to self-monitor their nutritional behaviour, hunger levels and affective state. Cravings leading to a binge were associated with higher tension, lower mood and lower hunger than those cravings not leading to a binge. Levels of tension and hunger were the critical discriminating variables. The findings of the study support empirical evidence and models of emotional blocking in binge-eating behaviour and challenge the current cognitive starve–binge models of bulimia. The role of food cravings in the emotional blocking model is discussed in terms of a classically conditioned motivational state. Implications for treatment are addressed.