This is National Eating Disorders Awareness Week, and Dr. Rebecca Klatzkin, assistant professor of psychology, has published her research on binge eating in Physiology and Behavior. Co-authors are Rhodes students Sierra Gaffney ’15, Kathryn Cyrus ’15 and Elizabeth Bigus ’14.
The title of the article is “Binge Eating Disorder and Obesity: Preliminary Evidence for Distinct Cardiovascular and Psychological Phenotypes,” and in the research, obese women with binge eating disorder (BED) were compared to obese and normal weight non-BED women.
Obese BED group reported greater depression, perceived stress, and eating psychopathology as well as showed greater blood pressure, negative affect, and anxiety irrespective of stress task. Stress-induced change in hunger was associated with cardiovascular measures in obese BED only.
Results indicate that BED and obesity are distinct in terms of psychological and physiological stress-related factors. Read more.