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Picking or nibbling: Frequency and associated clinical features in bulimia nervosa, anorexia nervosa, and binge eating disorder
Author(s) -
Conceição Eva M.,
Crosby Ross,
Mitchell James E.,
Engel Scott G.,
Wonderlich Stephen A.,
Simonich Heather K.,
Peterson Caroline B.,
Crow Scott J.,
Grange Daniel
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
international journal of eating disorders
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.785
H-Index - 138
eISSN - 1098-108X
pISSN - 0276-3478
DOI - 10.1002/eat.22167
Subject(s) - bulimia nervosa , anorexia nervosa , binge eating , binge eating disorder , psychopathology , eating disorders , psychology , psychiatry , clinical psychology , dieting , body mass index , weight loss , obesity , medicine
Objective Picking or ribbling (P&N) is a newly studied eating behavior characterized by eating in an unplanned and repetitious manner in between meals and snacks. This behavior seems to be related to poorer weight loss outcomes after bariatric surgery for weight loss in severely obese patients, but clarification is still required regarding its value in other clinical samples. The purpose of this study was to investigate the frequency of P&N across different eating disorder samples, as well as to examine its association with psychopathological eating disorder features. Method Our sample included treatment‐seeking adult participants, recruited for five different clinical trials: 259 binge eating disorder (BED); 264 bulimia nervosa (BN), and 137 anorexia nervosa (AN). Participants were assessed using the Eating Disorders Examination interview before entering the clinical trials. Results P&N was reported by 44% of the BED; 57.6% of the BN; and 34.3% of the AN participants. No association was found between P&N and BMI, the presence of compensatory behaviors, binge eating, or any of the eating disorder examination subscales. Discussion This study suggests that P&N behavior is highly prevalent across eating disorder diagnoses, but it is not associated with psychopathology symptoms or other eating disordered behaviors. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.(Int J Eat Disord 2013; 46:815–818)