title: Emotion processing and regulation in women with morbid obesity who apply for bariatric surgery.
abstract: Emotional eating, the tendency to eat when experiencing negative affect, is prevalent in morbid obesity and may indicate that ways to deal with emotions are disturbed. Our aim was to compare emotion processing and regulation between 102 women with morbid obesity who apply for bariatric surgery and 102 women from the general population (control group) and to examine in the group with morbid obesity the association of emotion processing and regulation with emotional eating. The group with morbid obesity reported higher scores on difficulty identifying feelings (alexithymia, p = 0.002) and suppression of emotions (p = 0.003) than the control group. In the women with morbid obesity, more negative affect and a higher difficulty identifying feelings were correlated with more emotional eating (r = 0.36 and r = 0.35, p < 0.001). Our study suggests that negative emotions and unhealthy emotion processing may play a role in emotional eating, and it indicates the possible relevance of emotion processing and emotional regulation as initiating or perpetuating mechanisms in morbid obesity.
authors.affiliation: Department of Nutrition and Dietetics, School of Sports and Nutrition, University of Applied Sciences, Dr Meurerlaan 8, 1067 SM Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Hanna
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Zijlstra
authors.forename: Henriët
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: van Middendorp
authors.forename: Lieselot
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Devaere
authors.forename: Junilla K
authors.initials: JK
authors.lastname: Larsen
authors.forename: Bert
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: van Ramshorst
authors.forename: Rinie
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Geenen
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000342:Affective Symptoms / Q000453:epidemiology; D000368:Aged; D050110:Bariatric Surgery; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D004435:Eating / Q000523:psychology*; D004644:Emotions; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D009426:Netherlands / Q000453:epidemiology; D009767:Obesity, Morbid / Q000523:psychology* / Q000601:surgery; D010342:Patient Acceptance of Health Care; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D055815:Young Adult