Picking or nibbling: frequency and associated clinical features in bulimia nervosa, anorexia nervosa, and binge eating disorder.
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.


METHODS
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.


CONCLUSIONS
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.
School of Psychology, University of Minho, Braga, Portugal; Department of Clinical Research, Neuropsychiatric Research Institute, Fargo, North Dakota.
Eva M
EM
Conceição
Ross
R
Crosby
James E
JE
Mitchell
Scott G
SG
Engel
Stephen A
SA
Wonderlich
Heather K
HK
Simonich
Caroline B
CB
Peterson
Scott J
SJ
Crow
Daniel
D
Le Grange
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000856:Anorexia Nervosa / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology*; D056912:Binge-Eating Disorder / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology*; D001828:Body Image / Q000523:psychology; D015992:Body Mass Index; D052018:Bulimia Nervosa / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology*; D005247:Feeding Behavior; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007406:Interview, Psychological; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012931:Social Environment; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D063189:Symptom Assessment; D013997:Time Factors; D015431:Weight Loss / Q000502:physiology; D055815:Young Adult
eating behaviors; eating disordered behaviors; picking or nibbling