title: Characteristics and use of treatment modalities of patients with binge-eating disorder in the Department of Veterans Affairs.
abstract: In 2013 binge-eating disorder (BED) was recognized as a formal diagnosis, but was historically included under the diagnosis code for eating disorder not otherwise specified (EDNOS). This study compared the characteristics and use of treatment modalities in BED patients to those with EDNOS without BED (EDNOS-only) and to matched-patients with no eating disorders (NED).
  
  
  
  Patients were identified for this study from electronic health records in the Department of Veterans Affairs from 2000 to 2011. Patients with BED were identified using natural language processing and patients with EDNOS-only were identified by ICD-9 code (307.50). First diagnosis defined index date for these groups. NED patients were frequency matched to BED patients up to 4:1, as available, on age, sex, BMI, depression, and index month encounter. Baseline characteristics and use of treatment modalities during the post-index year were compared using t-tests or chi-square tests.
  
  
  
  There were 593 BED, 1354 EDNOS-only, and 1895 matched-NED patients identified. Only 68 patients with BED had an EDNOS diagnosis. BED patients were younger (48.7 vs. 49.8years, p=0.04), more were male (72.2% vs. 62.8%, p<0.001) and obese (BMI 40.2 vs. 37.0, p<0.001) than EDNOS-only patients. In the follow-up period fewer BED (68.0%) than EDNOS-only patients (87.6%, p<0.001), but more BED than NED patients (51.9%, p<0.001) used at least one treatment modality.
  
  
  
  The characteristics of BED patients were different from those with EDNOS-only and NED as was their use of treatment modalities. These differences highlight the need for a separate identifier of BED.
authors.affiliation: VA Salt Lake City Health Care System, Salt Lake City, UT, USA; University of Utah College of Pharmacy, Salt Lake City, UT, USA; SelectHealth, Salt Lake City, UT, USA. Electronic address: brandon.bellows@pharm.utah.edu.
authors.forename: Brandon K
authors.initials: BK
authors.lastname: Bellows
authors.affiliation: VA Salt Lake City Health Care System, Salt Lake City, UT, USA; University of Utah College of Pharmacy, Salt Lake City, UT, USA; University of Utah School of Medicine, Salt Lake City, UT, USA.
authors.forename: Scott L
authors.initials: SL
authors.lastname: DuVall
authors.affiliation: Anolinx LLC, Salt Lake City, UT, USA.
authors.forename: Aaron W C
authors.initials: AW
authors.lastname: Kamauu
authors.affiliation: Shire Development LLC, Wayne, PA, USA.
authors.forename: Dylan
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Supina
authors.affiliation: Shire Development LLC, Wayne, PA, USA.
authors.forename: Manjiri
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Pawaskar
authors.affiliation: Shire Development LLC, Wayne, PA, USA.
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Babcock
authors.affiliation: VA Salt Lake City Health Care System, Salt Lake City, UT, USA; University of Utah College of Pharmacy, Salt Lake City, UT, USA.
authors.forename: Joanne
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: LaFleur
mesh_terms: D056912:Binge-Eating Disorder / Q000145:classification* / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000628:therapy*; D003863:Depression / Q000453:epidemiology; D057286:Electronic Health Records; D001068:Feeding and Eating Disorders / Q000145:classification / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000628:therapy; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009323:Natural Language Processing; D009765:Obesity / Q000453:epidemiology; D014481:United States; D014493:United States Department of Veterans Affairs; D014728:Veterans / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*
keywords: Binge-eating disorder; Eating disorder not otherwise specified; Natural language processing; Observational study