What are the symptoms of binge eating disorder (BED)?
The second day of highlighting eating problems focuses on Binge Eating Disorder (BED) as defined by DSM-5-TR criteria. BED is characterized by recurrent binge eating with a lack of control and associated distress. Episodes occur at least once a week for three months and are not accompanied by compensatory behaviors like those seen in bulimia or anorexia nervosa.
It’s day two of our special highlight on eating problems and today we’re going to look at the DSM-5-TR criteria for Binge Eating Disorder (BED). We’ll take a look through the criteria and some of the common features below:
The diagnostic criteria:
A. Recurrent episodes of binge eating. An episode of binge eating is characterised by both:
Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders Fifth Edition Text Revision (DSM-5-TR), American Psychiatric Association, 2022
1. Eating in a discrete period of time (e.g. within any 2 hour period), an amount of food that is definitely larger than what most individuals would eat in a similar period of time under similar circumstances;
2. A sense of lack of control over eating during the episodes (e.g. a feeling that one cannot stop eating or control what or how much one is eating).
B. Binge eating episodes are associated with three or more of the following:
1. Eating much more rapidly than normal.
2. Eating until feeling uncomfortably full.
3. Eating large amounts of food when not feeling physically hungry.
4. Eating alone because of feeling embarrassed by how much one is eating.
5. Feeling disgusted with oneself, depressed, or very guilty afterwards.
C. Marked distress regarding binge eating is present.
D. The binge eating occurs, on average, at least once a week for 3 months.
E. The binge eating is not associated with the recurrent use of inappropriate compensatory behaviour as in bulimia nervosa and does not occur exclusively during the course of bulimia nervosa or anorexia nervosa.
As with bulimia nervosa, Binge Eating Disorder may be specified as being “in partial remission” or “in full remission” and severity is categorised based on frequency of episodes (in this case, binges).
People experiencing Binge Eating Disorder do not engage in regular use of compensatory behaviours, and the disorder shouldn’t be diagnosed when another disorder (e.g., bulimia or anorexia nervosa) are a better fit for symptomology.
