It has long been noted that eating disorders (ED) are often combined with impulsive behavior and various addictions. Canadian scientists decided to investigate this phenomenon.
To assess the prevalence of such pathologies among patients with ED, a group of employees of the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Calgary (Canada), whose article In the magazine Frontiers in Psychiatry, conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis of the results of 35 studies published in scientific journals and passed the peer review stage.
In total, almost 10 patients with ED aged 17 to 44 years participated in these studies, the vast majority (97,7%) of whom were women.
As it turned out, the most common form of behavioral addiction among people with eating disorders is a pathological craving for shoplifting (this combination was found in 30% of study participants). In second place is an obsessive attraction to uncontrolled purchases (19%), followed by kleptomania (18%) – a painful attraction to theft, and not only in stores, Internet addiction (12%), episodic loss of self-control syndrome (5% ) – when a person in a fit of aggression can harm himself and others, trichotillomania (3%) – an obsessive craving to pull out his hair, and gambling (2%).
In general, every fifth patient with ED has any of the listed pathologies. As the researchers note, although the mechanisms underlying this association are not yet clear, when monitoring patients with eating disorders, one must keep in mind the high risk of disturbances in the control of impulsive behavior and behavioral addictions.