Links between traumatic experiences in childhood or early adulthood and lifetime binge eating disorder

To evaluate the association between childhood or early adulthood traumatic experiences and adulthood binge eating disorder (BED) in 326 male and 1158 female patients. A structured clinical interview for the DSM-IV (SCID-I/P)-adapted to lifetime exploration for the diagnosis of BED and for DSM-IV Childhood Disorders was conducted by the psychiatrist.

Emotional neglect was the most frequent event experienced (77.8% of females vs. 63.5% of males, p < 0.0001), ahead of physical abuse (23.3%), witnessed domestic violence (17.7%) and sexual abuse (11.8% of females vs. 2.8% of males (p < 0.0001)). The prevalence rate for BED in the whole population was 34.9%. The independent predictors for BED were emotional neglect in male obese patients (OR = 3.49; IC95% (1.94-6.29); p < 0.0001) and physical abuse (OR = 1.56; IC95% (1.14-2.12); p = 0.0047), emotional neglect (OR = 1.83; IC95% (1.37-2.44); p < 0.0001), and sexual abuse (OR = 1.80; IC95% (1.22-2.65); p = 0.0029) in female patients. With a cut-off value of 17, the sensitivity of the Binge Eating Scale for BED during lifetime was 50.8% with 74.7% specificity.

This study shows that early psychological events are independent predictors of BED in obese female and male adults. The BES questionnaire is a poor predictor of BED during lifetime and a structured clinical interview should be recommended.