Binge Eating Disorder : Neural correlates and treatments

Abstract: Binge eating disorder (BED) is the most prevalent of all eating disorders and is characterized by recurrent episodes of eating a large amount of food in the absence of control. There have been various kinds of research of BED, but the phenomenon remains poorly understood. This thesis reviews the results of research on BED to provide a synthetic view of the current general understanding on BED, as well as the neural correlates of the disorder and treatments. Research has so far identified several risk factors that may underlie the onset and maintenance of the disorder, such as emotion regulation deficits and body shape and weight concerns. However, neuroscientific research suggests that BED may characterize as an impulsive/compulsive disorder, with altered reward sensitivity and increased attentional biases towards food cues, as well as cognitive dysfunctions due to alterations in prefrontal, insular, and orbitofrontal cortices and the striatum. The same alterations as in addictive disorders. Genetic and animal studies have found changes in dopaminergic and opioidergic systems, which may contribute to the severities of the disorder. Research investigating neuroimaging and neuromodulation approaches as neural treatment, suggests that these are innovative tools that may modulate food-related reward processes and thereby suppress the binges. In order to predict treatment outcomes of BED, future studies need to further examine emotion regulation and the genetics of BED, the altered neurocircuitry of the disorder, as well as the role of neurotransmission networks relatedness to binge eating behavior.