title: Overweight in adolescent, psychiatric inpatients: A problem of general or food-specific impulsivity?
abstract: Adolescent psychiatric patients are vulnerable to weight problems and show an overrepresentation of overweight compared to the healthy population. One potential factor that can contribute to the etiology of overweight is higher impulsivity. As of yet, it is unclear whether it is a general impulse control deficit or weight-related aspects such as lower impulse control in response to food that have an impact on body weight. As this may have therapeutic implications, the current study investigated differences between overweight and non-overweight adolescent psychiatric inpatients (N = 98; aged 12-20) in relation to trait impulsivity and behavioral inhibition performance. The Barratt Impulsiveness Scale and two go/no-go paradigms with neutral and food-related stimulus materials were applied. Results indicated no significant differences concerning trait impulsivity, but revealed that overweight inpatients had significantly more difficulties in inhibition performance (i.e. they reacted more impulsively) in response to both food and neutral stimuli compared to non-overweight inpatients. Furthermore, no specific inhibition deficit for high-caloric vs. low-caloric food cues emerged in overweight inpatients, whereas non-overweight participants showed significantly lower inhibition skills in response to high-caloric than low-caloric food stimuli. The results highlight a rather general, non-food-specific reduced inhibition performance in an overweight adolescent psychiatric population. Further research is necessary to enhance the understanding of the role of impulsivity in terms of body weight status in this high-risk group of adolescent inpatients.
authors.affiliation: Clinic for Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, LWL University Hospital Hamm of the Ruhr-University Bochum, Germany. Electronic address: natalie.deux@rub.de.
authors.forename: Natalie
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Deux
authors.affiliation: University of Bielefeld, Department for Psychology and Sports, Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy for Children and Adolescents, Bielefeld, Germany.
authors.forename: Angelika A
authors.initials: AA
authors.lastname: Schlarb
authors.affiliation: Clinic for Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, LWL University Hospital Hamm of the Ruhr-University Bochum, Germany.
authors.forename: Franziska
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Martin
authors.affiliation: Clinic for Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, LWL University Hospital Hamm of the Ruhr-University Bochum, Germany.
authors.forename: Martin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Holtmann
authors.affiliation: Clinic for Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, LVR Hospital Essen of the University of Duisburg-Essen, Germany.
authors.forename: Johannes
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Hebebrand
authors.affiliation: Clinic for Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, LWL University Hospital Hamm of the Ruhr-University Bochum, Germany.
authors.forename: Tanja
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Legenbauer
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000294:Adolescent Behavior; D000328:Adult; D001835:Body Weight; D002648:Child; D003463:Cues; D002149:Energy Intake; D005247:Feeding Behavior; D005260:Female; D005502:Food; D006760:Hospitalization; D006801:Humans; D007175:Impulsive Behavior; D007266:Inhibition, Psychological; D008297:Male; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000150:complications*; D009765:Obesity / Q000209:etiology / Q000523:psychology*; D050177:Overweight; D012201:Reward; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Adolescents; Food stimuli; Inhibition performance; Inpatients; Overweight; Trait impulsivity