Anhedonia in cognitive behavioral therapy for binge eating spectrum disorders

ABSTRACT

Anhedonia is theorized as being relevant to binge eating spectrum disorders (BESDs) by palatable foods substituting the pleasure typically obtained from day-to-day activities. The current study examined whether anhedonia is associated with eating pathology at baseline and whether it predicts cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) outcomes alone and when controlling for non-anhedonia depression symptoms. Ninety-three individuals from two randomized controlled trials completed the Eating Disorder Examination and Beck Depression Inventory-II at pre-, mid-, and post-treatment. Results showed that anhedonia was positively associated with global eating pathology at baseline, and larger pre- to mid-treatment anhedonia and non-anhedonia reductions predicted larger pre- to post-treatment global eating pathology reductions, though the anhedonia association was no longer significant when controlling for non-anhedonia depression. Anhedonia appears to be related to global eating pathology in CBT for BESDs, but not loss of control eating. Further research is needed to elucidate the relationship between anhedonia and BESDs.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability

Data will be available upon reasonable request.

Additional information

Funding

The study is a secondary analysis of two randomized controlled trials supported by the National Institute of Mental Health under grants (R34MH118353; R43MH121205). Dr. Manasse is supported by the National Institute of Health under award (K23DK124514; National Institutes of Health under award [K23DK124514];