Emotional eating and cognitive conflicts as predictors of binge eating disorder in patients with obesity

Background/Objectives: Binge Eating Disorder (BED) is often associated with obesity. In order to identify the variables that allow to better detect the presence of BED, people with overnutrition were compared with and without BED in the presence of cognitive conflicts, eating symptoms and anxious-depressive symptoms. The inclusion of cognitive conflicts had been relevant in bulimia studies but had not been investigated with respect to BED. Method: Two groups with obesity were evaluated, one without BED (OB, n = 54) and the other with BED (OB-BED, n = 48), using a social-demographic questionnaire as well as a semi-structured interview to assess BED, questionnaires (DASS-21, EDE-Q, EEQ) and the Repertory Grid Technique. Results: Overall, the OB-BED group presented more conflicts and more symptoms. The model that best differentiated between the groups included emotional eating and level of cognitive conflicts, correctly classifying 91.4% of the sample. Conclusion: These results highlight the role played by cognitive conflicts and emotional eating as differentiating elements between OB and OB-BED, with a high level of predictive accuracy.