Binge Eating Disorder

Front 1

Prevalence

Back 1

.6-1.6% female, .26-.8% male, few racial/ethnic differences

Front 2

Course and onset

Back 2

Onset: adolescence to young adult, binge eating -> dieting, similar course to bulimia, higher spontaneous remission rate

Front 3

Diagnostic Criteria

Back 3

A. Recurrent episodes of binge eating. An episode is characterized by both of the following:

1. Eating, in a discrete period of time (within any 2 hour period), an amount of food that is definitely larger than what most people would eat in a similar period of time under similar circumstances

2. A sense of lack of control over eating during the episode(a feeling that one cannot stop eating or control what or how much one is eating)

B. The binge-eating episodes are associated with 3 or more of the following:

1. Eating much more rapidly than normal

2. Eating until feeling uncomfortably full

3. Eating large amounts of food when not feeling physically hungry

4. Eating alone because of feeling embarrassed by how much one is eating

5. Feeling disgusted with oneself, depressed, or very guilty afterward

C. Marked distress regarding binge eating is present

D. The binge eating occurs on average at least once a week for 3 months

E. The binge eating is not associated with the recurrent use of inappropriate compensatory behavior as in bulimia nervosa and does not occur exclusively during the course of bulimia nervosa or anorexia nervosa

Specifiers:

Partial remission: after full criteria previously met, binge eating occurs at an average frequency of less than one episode per week for sustained period of time

Full remission: after full criteria previously met, none of the criteria has been met for a sustained period of time

Severity:

Mild: 1-3 binge eating episodes per week

Moderate: 4-7 binge eating episodes per week

Severe: 8-13 binge eating episodes per week

Extreme: 14 or more binge eating episodes per week