The relationship of emotional dysregulation, alexthymia and eating disorders in individuals with obesity seeking treatment

Aim & Scope: Obesity has become a widespread life-threatening complaint. Surgery methods have gained attention particularly in the past decade. As it's more frequent in obesity (bariatric) surgery candidates, the prevalence of psychiatric disorders, particularly binge eating disorder (BED), cannot be underestimated. The present study focuses on the prevalence of psychiatric disorders in the obesity patients attending to both surgery and dietitian. Additionally, the correlation of emotional dysregulation and alexithymia along with eating disorders and problematic eating behavior such as emotional eating is analyzed here. In this context, by researching the eating disorders and other psychiatric disorders in attending obesity patients, it is expected to contribute to identifying the appropriate treatment method for those patients and discovering new treatment methods. Method: In the present study, 55 patients who attended to bariatric surgery and were given consultation by psychiatric department and 66 patients whose body mass index (BMI) is equal to or greater than 25 and who attended to dietitian are included. Eating disorders and the rest of the psychiatric disorders are diagnosed by DSM-5 and SCID-I, respectively. Furthermore, the questionnaires Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale (DERS), Toronto Alexithymia Scale-20 (TAS-20), Dutch Eating Behaviour Questionnaire (DEBQ) and The Night Eating Questionnaire (NEQ) are conducted to all attendees. Results: The prevalence of psychiatric disorder comorbidity in both groups is found as notable, whereas the prevalence of eating disorders in surgery group is found as greater than it is in control group. BED is found as the mostly encountered eating disorder, which is followed by BED and night eating disorder comorbidity. A statistically significant difference in terms of DERS, TAS-20 total and DEBQ-emotional eating points is obtained between the patients with BED and without BED. A positive correlation of BMI with the non-acceptance domain of the difficulties of emotional regulation, emotional eating and night-eating behaviors is found. Likewise, another positive correlation of DEBQ-emotional eating with DERS and TAS-20 total points is revealed. Conclusion: To the best of our knowledge, the present thesis constitutes the first study in Turkey, where the correlation between emotional dysregulation, alexithymia and eating disorders in obese patients, who attended to surgery and dietitian for treatment, is analyzed.In the current study, the prevalence of psychiatric diagnoses is found as quite notable in both groups. It is demonstrated that as the severity of obesity increases, the prevalence of eating disorders increases as well. BED is most frequently accompanying disorder with obesity. Emotional eating behavior is more commonly encountered with the patients with BED, in comparison to patients without BED. The findings of the present study point out that possessing alexithymia features and lack of emotion regulation ability is correlated with emotional eating behavior and BED. Additionally, current work presents a perspective for the mechanisms of problematic eating behaviors in the obesity patients attending to treatment. In order to clarify and reveal these mechanisms in more detail, specific tailored made clinical and experimental laboratory research can be scheduled as the future work.