Experiential Avoidance and Bulimic Symptoms among Men in Residential Treatment for Substance Use Disorders: A Preliminary Examination

ABSTRACT

There has been a growing focus on identifying factors that underlie and maintain bulimic symptoms and substance use disorders (SUDs), as both are associated with high mortality and poor clinical outcomes. Experiential avoidance has been an area of interest within both the eating disorder and SUD fields, as it is a robust risk factor for both disorders. No known research has examined the relationship between experiential avoidance and bulimic symptoms in a SUD treatment-seeking sample. Moreover, the extant literature has focused exclusively on female samples. The purpose of this exploratory study was to examine the relationship between bulimic symptoms and experiential avoidance within an understudied population: men in treatment for a SUD. Three separate hierarchical regression analyses were conducted to examine the following relationships: (1) experiential avoidance and bulimic symptoms; (2) experiential avoidance and alcohol use and problems; and (3) experiential avoidance and drug use and problems. Results demonstrated that, controlling for alcohol and drug use and problems, experiential avoidance was significantly associated with bulimic symptoms. Experiential avoidance was also significantly associated with alcohol use and problems and drug use and problems. These findings are preliminary and future research is needed to further examine this relationship.

KEYWORDS:

• Binge eating disorder
• bulimia nervosa
• eating disorders
• experiential avoidance
• substance use disorders

Conflict of interest

Gregory Stuart started conducting psychoeducational treatment groups for patients at Cornerstone of Recovery for a maximum of four hours per week. None of this research project pertains to any of the psychoeducational groups. Dr. Stuart does not ever do any study recruitment, is not informed which patients do or do not participate in research, and does not mention anything about research to the patients attending groups.

Ryan Shorey started working as a research consultant at Cornerstone. There is no restriction on what Ryan can publish and his research consultation does not influence the study results in any way. Ryan does not interact with Cornerstone patients. Ryan has reported all of his consultation activities to Ohio University and no concern about financial conflict of interest has been raised.

Funding

This work was supported, in part, by grant K24AA019707 from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) awarded to the last author. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the NIAAA or the National Institutes of Health.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported, in part, by grant K24AA019707 from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) awarded to the last author. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the NIAAA or the National Institutes of Health.