Binge eating disorder (BED) and psychopathological symptoms in adolescence: preliminary report from a study in Liguria.

The prevalence of Binge Eating Disorder (BED), added in the new DSM-5, is increasing among teenagers and young adults of Western Countries (Goldschmidt et al., 2016). Despite is well-known the prevalence of eating disorders in adolescence, little of specific is known about the BED, which could show comorbidity both with internalizing and externalizing symptoms in adolescents (Forrest et al., 2017; Pace, Guiducci & Cavanna, 2016; Swanson et al., 2011). This preliminary study involved a non-clinical sample of Italian adolescents. We aimed to investigate: 1) the prevalence of BED and psychopathological symptoms; 2) the associations between BED and internalizing and externalizing symptoms. This report is the first screening wave of a larger study that aims to explore the psychological variables which can be associated with the risk of BED in adolescence, such as attachment representations and emotional functioning. The participants were 382 adolescents (aged 13-18 years, M= 15.59, SD=1.1; 38.5% males 61.5% females), enrolled from high-schools in Liguria. The measures were: 1) demographic and anamnestic data set; 2) the Binge Eating Scale (BES) to assess the risk or presence of Binge Eating Disorder (cut off >= 17); 3) the Youth Self Report 11/18 (YSR 11/18) to assess internalizing (cut-off M>29, F>35) and externalizing (cut-off M>31, F>26) problems. We found the 6% of adolescents resulting as at-risk on BES scale (22 girls and 1 boy); 8 boys and 19 girls showed internalizing symptoms (7.07%), while 3 boys and 11 girls externalizing symptoms (3.66%). Correlations were found between BES and YSR scores in internalizing (r = .424; p = .000) and externalizing (r = .153; p = .003) symptoms. These results suggest to deepen investigate comorbidities between BED and other psychopathological problems in adolescence.