title: Which factors do provoke binge eating? An exploratory study in eating disorder patients.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To study the different factors (external, emotional, cognitive, and physiological) which may trigger binge eating in eating disorder patients and to make a comparison of binge eating triggers in different eating disorder samples, i.e. anorexia nervosa bingeing-purging type and bulimia nervosa (BN).
  
  
  METHODS
  A total of 242 eating disorder patients filled out the Binge Eating Trigger Checklist (BETCH), a new screening device to evaluate the type of situations (and their experienced discomfort) which subjects identify as antecedents of a binge eating episode.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Eating disorder patients report a combination of negative emotions, physiological states (urge for sweets) and negative cognitions as most important antecedents for their bingeing episodes. External stimuli were only reported by a small number of patients and provoked significantly lower levels of discomfort. A comparison of binge eating triggers in bingeing anorexia nervosa patients and bulimic patients showed only a few significant differences.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Binge eating, as perceived and reported by eating disorder patients, seems to be provoked by a combination of different antecedents, both emotional, cognitive and physiological. Remarkably enough, binge eating triggers did not differ between bingeing anorectic patients and patients suffering from BN.
authors.affiliation: University Center St-Jozef, Kortenberg, Belgium. johan.vanderlin@uc-kortenberg.be
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Vanderlinden
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Dalle Grave
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Fernandez
authors.forename: W
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Vandereycken
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Pieters
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Noorduin
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000856:Anorexia Nervosa / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000523:psychology; D002032:Bulimia / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000523:psychology*; D003071:Cognition; D003463:Cues; D004644:Emotions; D006801:Humans; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D015985:Precipitating Factors; D011603:Psychophysiology; D013030:Spain