(PS7-64) Gastrointestinal Symptoms in Adolescents with and Without Binge Eating

Gastrointestinal (GI) symptoms have been linked to eating disorder pathology such that increased GI symptoms are linked to higher engagement in eating disorder pathology and individuals with eating disorders experience more GI symptoms than those without eating disorders. Further, increasing evidence is supporting the gut-brain axis mechanism in eating pathology. Most of this work has occurred with people with Anorexia or Bulimia Nervosa or normal and low-weight adult community samples. Little work has investigated the relationship between GI symptoms and binge eating, specifically in adolescents with a body-mass-index (BMI) in the overweight or obese range. Given that adolescents with a BMI in the overweight or obese range are at an increased risk of engaging in eating disorder pathology, it is critical to increase our understanding of the relationship between GI symptoms and binge eating in this population.  

To this extent, we tested whether adolescents with binge eating experienced more GI symptoms than adolescents without binge eating. Adolescents of higher weight status (N= 61, M age = 15.31, M BMI percentile = 97.69%, 56.5% female, 56.5% White) completed the Eating Disorder Examination (EDE) to assess binge eating and the Gastrointestinal Symptoms Questionnaire (GISQ) to assess GI symptom presence. Adolescents were categorized as experiencing binge eating if they reported any binge episodes (subjective or objective) in the previous three months as assessed by the EDE.  

We conducted a one-tailed t-test (α = 0.05) to test whether adolescents with binge eating reported significantly greater GI symptoms than adolescents without binge eating. We found adolescents with binge eating (n  = 21, M GI score= 78.86 (SD = 26.04)) had significantly more GI symptoms than adolescents without binge eating (n = 40, M GI score = 62.40(SD =26.66), t(59) = 2.31, p = .012, Cohen’s d = .62, 95% CI = [0.080, 1.16]. 

These preliminary results suggest that there is an important relationship between GI symptoms and binge-eating in adolescents with a BMI in the overweight or obese range. Results support further investigation into this relationship to test the directionality and temporal dynamic of this relationship and the mechanisms by which GI symptoms influence the presence of binge eating. Understanding the relationship between GI symptoms and binge eating could help improve understanding of the risk and maintenance factors for binge eating in adolescents and provide an important intervention target.