title: Temperament and emotional eating: a crucial relationship in eating disorders.
abstract: Specific personality traits are related to Eating Disorders (EDs) specific and general psychopathology. Recent studies suggested that Emotional Eating (EE) is a common dimension in all EDs, irrespective of binge eating. The present study was aimed to explore the relationship of temperamental features with EE and eating symptomatology in a sample of EDs patients, adjusting for general psychopathology. One hundred and sixty six female patients were enrolled at the Eating Disorders Outpatient Clinic of the Careggi Teaching-Hospital of Florence. Participants completed the emotional eating scale, the temperament and character inventory, the eating disorder examination questionnaire and the symptom checklist 90-revised. Novelty seeking and self directedness showed significant correlations with EE after adjustment for general psychopathology. Patients with binge eating displayed significant associations between EE and novelty seeking and self directedness. Among patients without binge eating, no significant correlation between EE and temperamental features was observed. Specific temperamental features are associated to EE in EDs. A clear, different pattern of association in patients with different eating attitudes and behavior was found. Considering that treatments of EDs are largely based on psychotherapeutic interventions, focused on emotions and cognitions, the present data provide some hints which could be helpful for the development of more appropriate psychotherapeutic strategies.
authors.affiliation: Psychiatric Unit, Careggi Teaching Hospital, Florence University School of Medicine, Largo Brambilla 3, 50134 Florence, Italy. Electronic address: francesco.rotella@unifi.it.
authors.forename: Francesco
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Rotella
authors.affiliation: Department of Health Sciences, University of Florence, Viale Pieraccini 6, 50139 Florence, Italy. Electronic address: giulia.fioravanti@unifi.it.
authors.forename: Giulia
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Fioravanti
authors.affiliation: Psychiatric Unit, Careggi Teaching Hospital, Florence University School of Medicine, Largo Brambilla 3, 50134 Florence, Italy. Electronic address: lucia1827@hotmail.it.
authors.forename: Lucia
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Godini
authors.affiliation: Diabetes Agency, Careggi Teaching Hospital, Via delle Oblate 4, 50141 Florence, Italy. Electronic address: edoardo.mannucci@unifi.it.
authors.forename: Edoardo
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Mannucci
authors.affiliation: Department of Health Sciences, University of Florence, Viale Pieraccini 6, 50139 Florence, Italy. Electronic address: carlo.faravelli@unifi.it.
authors.forename: Carlo
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Faravelli
authors.affiliation: Psychiatric Unit, Careggi Teaching Hospital, Florence University School of Medicine, Largo Brambilla 3, 50134 Florence, Italy. Electronic address: valdo.ricca@unifi.it.
authors.forename: Valdo
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Ricca
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D056912:Binge-Eating Disorder / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology; D002605:Character; D004644:Emotions; D001068:Feeding and Eating Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010555:Personality Inventory / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D013223:Statistics as Topic; D013694:Temperament
keywords: Binge eating; Eating disorder; Emotional eating; Psychopathology; Temperament