Sex-specific clinical-psychopathological and psychosocial characteristics of patients with binge eating disorder

Abstract

Binge eating is the main feature of many eating disorders, in particular, binge eating disorder. It is associated with severe mental and physical health problems, such as depression, anxiety, substance abuse, chronic somatic diseases, etc. Few studies of eating disorders include males because a significant minority of males report difficulties in controlling eating behavior despite their greater tendency to overeat. The objective: the study aimed to assess the clinical-psychopathological characteristics and psychosocial characteristics of patients with binge eating disorders, depending on gender. Materials and methods. An open cohort study of the clinical-psychopathological characteristics and psychosocial features of 163 patients with binge eating disorder was conducted. After obtaining informed consent, patients were assessed using several psychometric scales: the Binge Eating Scale (BES); the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS); and the Gola Emotional Intelligence Test. The level of statistical significance p was set at < 0.05. The statistical package IBM SPSS Statistics Base v.22 was used for the analysis. Results. Specific gender differences in the clinical-psychopathological and psychosocial characteristics of patients with binge eating disorder were identified, which were taken into account in personalized interventions for medical and psychological support of such patients. Such differences include a higher incidence of compulsive overeating in males and a significantly higher incidence of mixed psychosocial types of overeating. Males were taller (р < 0.001), heavier (р < 0.001), and had a higher body mass index than females (р < 0.001), and were more likely to have moderate to severe binge eating disorder. Thus, there is a higher risk of severe forms of binge eating disorder in males despite its greater prevalence among females. Males had a significantly greater amplitude of emotional anxiety (р = 0.001) and depressive (р = 0.003) response, and a substantially higher level of clinical anxiety (р = 0.02). Males, compared to females, had a greater severity of binge eating with anxiety-depressive response against a background of lower potential of emotional intelligence, in particular emotional awareness, empathy, and management of one’s own and other people’s emotions. In contrast, problematic self-motivation was characteristic of patients with binge eating disorder regardless of gender. Conclusions. The results of this study provide insight into the gender-specific clinical, psychopathological, and psychosocial characteristics of patients with binge eating disorder. This promising finding allows for the development of more effective and personalized treatment strategies with gender-specific targets for medical and psychological intervention for patients with binge eating disorders.