Journal Article Annotations
2017, 4th Quarter
Annotation by Timothy Kiong, MD
January 2018
Type of study: Retrospective cohort study
The finding: This is a retrospective cohort study looking at the prevalence of binge eating tendencies in patients who have non-alcoholic fatty liver disease seeking care at a fatty liver center. The authors found 23.1% of the 95 patients screened to have binge eating tendencies utilizing Binge Eating Scale (BES). There were no significant differences noted in terms of insulin resistance, hypertension, hyperlipidemia, BMI, hepatic characteristics (steatosis, NASH, cirrhosis) between the patients with binge eating tendencies and those without.
Strength and weaknesses: This is the first study looking at binge eating in patients with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease. Some limitations of this study include the small sample size, retrospective nature of the study and also the use of BES (which does not take into account frequency of episodes, a part of the diagnostic criteria for binge eating disorder in DSM V) to predict the severity of binge eating disorder.
Relevance: Clinically, binge eating disorder is a relatively new diagnosis (officially introduced in DSM V) that may be somewhat underdiagnosed and treated. This study brings to light a group of patients that may benefit from additional screening and subsequent treatment.