The U.S. Surgeon General has issued a landmark report intended “to address substance use disorders and the wider range of health problems and consequences related to alcohol and drug misuse in the United States.” Seeking “to galvanize the public, policymakers, and health care systems,” the report claims, among other things, that more than 25 percent of the adult and adolescent population experienced at least one binge drinking episode in the past month—that is, men consumed five or more standard alcoholic beverages in a single occasion and women consumed four or more such beverages in a single occasion. Divided into seven chapters, the report includes sections on “the neurobiology of substance use, misuse, and addiction,” prevention and early intervention strategies, and recovery paths. In particular, the report highlights “well-supported scientific evidence” purportedly showing that (i) “addiction to alcohol or drugs is a chronic brain disease that has potential for recurrence and…
Tag Archives addiction
Swedish researchers have warned that the software packages used to analyze the results of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) contain flaws that increase the chance of a false positive by as much as 70 percent. Anders Eklund, “Cluster failure: Why fMRI inferences for spatial extent have inflated false-positive rates,” PNAS, June 2016. For more than 15 years, scientists have used fMRI analyses to explore the food addiction framework and the effect of food advertising on the brain, among other things. The Swedish study explains that the majority of fMRI studies rely on SPM, FSL or AFNI software packages based on “parametric statistical methods that depend on a variety of assumptions,” even though these methods have only been validated with simulated—as opposed to real— data. As a result, the researchers questioned whether these methods could potentially show brain activity in its absence, raising the issue of false positives. Using resting-state data…
New research reportedly suggests that belief in food addiction translates into support for obesity-related policies, “even when accounting for the significant associations of age, gender and political party.” Erica Schulte, et al., “Belief in Food Addiction and Obesity-Related Policy Support,” PLoS One, January 2016. Relying on the responses of 200 individuals recruited through Amazon Mechanical Turk to answer questions about belief in food addiction and support for 13 obesity-related initiatives, researchers reported that “belief in food addiction and political party both had moderate effect sizes for predicting support for obesity-related policy.” “Historically, the identification of a substance as addictive shifts public perceptions in a manner that increases support for public policies that aim to reduce the negative impact of the substance (e.g., restrictions on marketing, taxation),” the study’s authors noted. “For example, the identification of nicotine as addictive, rather than habit forming, was one of the defining moments that shifted…
A research article examining the Yale Food Addiction Scale (YFAS) and Palatable Motives Eating Scale (PEMS) has concluded that together these tools “offer a rigorous way to evaluate whether an addictive process contributes to certain eating disorders, such as obesity and binge eating.” Jose Manuel Lerma-Cabrera, et al., “Food addiction as a new piece of the obesity framework,” Nutrition Journal, January 2016. Summarizing various “food addiction” studies, the authors posit that these models suggest “certain highly processed foods can have a high addictive potential and may be responsible for some cases of obesity and eating disorders.” In particular, the article notes that despite the evidence for food addiction, “it is highly unlikely that all foods have addictive potential.” It claims that manufacturers “have designed processed foods by adding sugar, salt, or fat, which can maximize the reinforcing properties of traditional foods (fruits, vegetables). The high palatability (hedonic value) that this…
Raising concerns about how the media portrays the concept of food addiction, a new study questions whether endorsement of this model “may cause people to perceive a lack of control over eating which could promote unhealthy dietary behaviors.” Charlotte Hardman, et al., “‘Food Addiction is Real’: The effects of exposure to this message on self-diagnosed food addiction and eating behavior,” Appetite, April 2015. To explore this hypothesis, researchers with the University of Liverpool and University of Bristol directed 60 study participants to read fake new articles describing food addiction as either a “myth” or “real.” The study then used a disguised taste test to measure consumption of “indulgent” and “non-indulgent” snack foods (potato chips, cookies, breadsticks and grapes), in addition to asking participants if they perceived themselves as food addicts. The results evidently showed that “the proportion of self-diagnosed addicts more than doubled (57%) when participants were exposed to information…
An article examining food addiction in light of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) has concluded that the latest edition’s new criteria for substance use disorders (SUDs) “may be valuable for food addiction research, even if some of those symptoms may rarely be endorsed by participants exhibiting addiction-like eating.” Adrian Meule and Ashley Gearhardt, “Food Addiction in Light of the DSM-5,” Nutrients, September 2014. Claiming that further studies are needed to evaluate the new criteria’s relevance to food addiction, the article’s authors explain that DSM-5 now includes the following criteria for SUDs: (i) “failure to fulfill major role obligations at work, school, or home as a result of substance use”; (ii) “continued substance use despite social or interpersonal problems caused or exacerbated by substance use”; and (iii) “recurrent substance use in situations in which it is physically hazardous.” The manual has also defined a new symptom of “craving, or…
A review of recent research focused on food consumption and mood regulation has reported that complex biological factors engage both the peripheral and central nervous system “in a bi-directional manner linking food intake, mood, and obesity.” Minati Singh, “Mood, Food and Obesity,” Frontiers in Psychology, September 2014. Summarizing human and animal studies, the article addresses the following topics: (i) the relationship between stress, mood and food intake, (ii) the relationship between mood, food preference and obesity; (iii) “food reward, addiction and obesity”; (iv) “society and food addiction”; (v) the roles of ghrelin, serotonin, leptin, adiponectin, resistin, and insulin in regulating food, mood and obesity; and (vi) “epigenetics, mood and eating disorders.” “Many people find it hard to stop eating a particular food even though they are not hungry,” explains the article author. “Such behaviors activate the brain reward center and alter the brain structure… Through neurobiological data, presence of food…
A recent report published in the journal Appetite has allegedly concluded that “the same kinds of impulsive behavior that lead some people to abuse alcohol and other drugs may also be an important contributor to an unhealthy relationship with food.” Cara Murphy, et al., “Interrelationships among impulsive personality traits, food addiction, and Body Mass Index,” Appetite, January 2014. According to a January 24, 2014, press release, University of Georgia researchers apparently “used two different scales, the Yale Food Addiction Scale and the UPPS-P Impulsive Behavior Scale, to determine levels of food addiction and impulsivity among the 223 participants,” and “then compared these results with each participant’s body mass index.” Their findings evidently showed that individuals “who reported acting more rashly when experiencing strong levels of positive (Positive Urgency) and negative (Negative Urgency) emotions, endorsed more symptoms of addictive eating,” while those “who reported more food addiction symptoms indicated that they…
A recent study has reportedly documented “for the first time in a large, US-based population of women” the prevalence of food addiction in middle-aged and older women. Alan Flint, et al., “Food addiction scale measurement in 2 cohorts of middle-aged and older women,” American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, January 2014. Authored by Harvard School of Public Health research scientist Alan Flint and Duke University Sanford School of Public Policy Dean Kelly Brownell, as well as researchers from the University of Michigan, Arizona State University, Children’s Hospital Boston, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston, and Harvard Medical School, the study analyzed dietary data from 134,175 women enrolled in the Nurses’ Health Study (NHS) and the Nurses’ Health Study II (NHS II) in light of a modified Yale Food Addiction Scale. “Overall, 7,839 (5.8%) of the women surveyed met the criteria for food addiction measured by the modified Yale Food Addiction Scale,” stated the study’s…
York University researchers have published a qualitative study examining “how obese women with and without binge eating disorder (BED) experience overeating in relation to the DSM-5 [Diagnostic and Statistical Manual] symptoms of addiction.” Claire Curtis & Caroline Davis, “A Qualitative Study of Binge Eating and Obesity From an Addiction Perspective,” Eating Disorders, January 2014. According to the study, the recently-published DSM-5 includes a new category for “Addiction and Related Disorders” that addresses “both substance use disorders (SUDs) and non-substance addictions” in addition to providing new diagnostic guidelines. Using these expanded criteria, the authors interviewed 12 obese women with BED and 12 without BED, concluding that “both groups of women endorsed DSM-5 SUD criteria (in relation to food) in their narratives,” although there were “visible qualitative differences in how the women experienced these symptoms.” More specifically, Curtis and Davis reported that while both groups expressed a desire to reduce their food…
