ArticleEating and weight disorders : EWD2022
Food addiction comorbid to mental disorders in adolescents: a nationwide survey and register-based study.
Article in Eating and weight disorders : EWD, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 14 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Who cites it
14 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 21 citations in OpenAlex.
- Ultra-Processed Foods and Mental Health in Children and Adolescents: Evidence from a Systematic Review.Nutrients · 2026Pooled it
- Shared Determinants of Poor Sleep, Obesity and Adiposity in Adolescents Aged 8-18-Years: A Systematic Review.Journal of sleep research · 2025Pooled it
- Associations of trait anger and the anger expression and regulation dimensions with food addiction in the LIFE-adult study.Journal of eating disorders · 2026Article
- Comprehensive analysis of the relationship between ultra-processed food consumption and food addiction at one-year follow-up in older adults with metabolic syndrome.Journal of behavioral addictions · 2026Article
- Clinical correlates of depressed adolescents comorbid with food addiction: a cross-sectional study.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2026Article
- Food addiction in children: a network analysis of nutritional, metabolic, and sociodemographic factors.Journal of eating disorders · 2025Article
- First do no harm: the impact of assessing for ultra-processed food addiction on dietary restraint in patients with and without eating disorders during residential treatment.Journal of eating disorders · 2025Article
- Food addiction and its associations with mental and physical health comorbidities and with quality of life in the general population.Journal of eating disorders · 2025Article
- Reliability and validity of the Addiction-Like eating behavior scale (AEBS) in a Peruvian adolescent population.Frontiers in psychology · 2025Article
- Article
- Mechanisms by which adverse childhood experiences, other traumas and PTSD influence the health and well-being of individuals with eating disorders throughout the life span.Journal of eating disorders · 2022Review
- Benefits of Exercise in Multidisciplinary Treatment of Binge Eating Disorder in Adolescents with Obesity.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2022Review
- Linking drug and food addiction via compulsive appetite.British journal of pharmacology · 2022Article
- Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
5 authors at 3 institutions in 2 countries.
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Abstract
purposeAdolescence is a high-risk period for development of addictive behavior. This may also apply to addiction-like eating of highly processed foods-commonly referred to as "food addiction". Adolescents with mental disorder may be at particularly elevated risk of developing food addiction as addiction often accompanies mental disorder. However, there are only few studies in adolescents investigating this potential comorbidity. Therefore, the primary aim of this study was to examine the food addiction symptom load, as measured by the dimensional Yale Food Addiction Scale for Children-version 2.0 (dYFAS-C 2.0), among adolescents with a clinically verified mental disorder.
methodA total of 3529 adolescents aged 13-17 were drawn from the Danish Psychiatric Central Research Register, stratified on six major diagnostic categories of mental disorders; psychotic disorders, affective disorders, anxiety disorders, eating disorders, autism spectrum disorders, and attention deficit disorders. Via their parents, these adolescents were invited to participate in a web-based survey. Data on health and socioeconomic factors from the Danish registers were linked to both respondents and non-respondents, allowing for thorough attrition analysis and estimation of weighted dYFAS-C 2.0 scores.
resultsA total of 423 adolescents participated in the survey (response rate 12.0%). The mean weighted dYFAS-C 2.0 total score was 13.9 (95% CI 12.6; 14.9) for the entire sample and varied substantially across the diagnostic categories being highest for those with psychotic disorder, mean 18.4 (95% CI 14.6; 14.9), and affective disorders, mean 19.4. (95% CI 16.3; 22.5). Furthermore, the dYFAS-C 2.0 total score was positively correlated with body mass index (BMI) (r = 0.33, p < 0.05).
conclusionFood addiction symptomatology seems to be prevalent among adolescents with mental disorder, particularly affective and psychotic disorders. As obesity is a tremendous problem in individuals with mental disorder further investigation of food addiction in young people with mental disorder is called for. This could potentially aid in the identification of potential transdiagnostic targets for prevention and treatment of obesity in this group. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: Level IV, Observational cross-sectional descriptive study combined with retrospective register data.
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