Connection between Bipolar Disorder and Compulsive Overeating: Roots, Consequences, and Management Strategies
Bipolar disorder and binge eating share a complex relationship, with overlapping psychological and biological factors leading to a co-occurring condition that can significantly impact mental health and overall quality of life.
Understanding the Connection
Individuals with bipolar disorder often experience mood instability, which may contribute to disordered eating patterns such as binge eating. This can serve as a coping mechanism during depressive or manic episodes, helping individuals manage overwhelming emotions much like substance use in bipolar disorder.
Genetic predisposition plays a role in both conditions, suggesting shared heritable risk factors that affect brain chemistry and impulse control. Hormonal influences, particularly sex hormones, impact brain pathways that regulate disinhibition and urge control, which are implicated in binge eating behaviors. Psychological factors common in bipolar disorder, such as low self-esteem, depression, stress, and anxiety, also increase the risk of binge eating disorder.
Impacts of Co-occurring Conditions
The combination of binge eating disorder and bipolar disorder can worsen mental health outcomes by increasing the risk of other comorbidities, including substance use disorders and anxiety. Physically, binge eating can lead to obesity, heart disease, and type 2 diabetes, complicating overall health, especially if bipolar disorder symptoms complicate treatment adherence.
Social and quality-of-life impacts include isolation, difficulties in personal relationships, and increased emotional distress, which may compound the challenges in managing bipolar disorder effectively. The cyclical nature of bipolar mood episodes combined with binge eating can create a feedback loop where poor impulse control and emotional dysregulation reinforce one another.
Treatment Approaches
Effective treatment typically requires integrated approaches addressing both mood instability and disordered eating behaviors. Disordered eating support groups may also be beneficial. Medication and talk therapy can help manage bipolar disorder symptoms, while cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) may lessen depression in people with binge eating disorder.
Binge eating treatment primarily consists of therapy, addressing past trauma, disordered thinking surrounding food, food insecurity triggers, and creating a routine to balance eating, activity, and sleep. Treatment for both conditions is important, as one condition may affect the other.
Notable Findings
- A 2021 study found that participants with both Binge Eating Disorder (BED) and bipolar disorder benefited from dialectical behavior therapy (DBT).
- In a study analyzing 47 studies with over 30,000 participants, 12.5% of people with bipolar disorder as their primary diagnosis also had BED, and 9.1% of people with BED as their primary diagnosis also had bipolar disorder.
- Research suggests an association between bipolar disorder and binge eating due to variance in the PRR5-ARHGAP8 gene.
- In a 2022 study focusing on teenagers and young adults, 20% of participants with both bipolar disorder and an eating disorder also had PTSD. Similar findings occurred between bulimia nervosa and bipolar disorder.
- Binge eating often appears around the time bipolar mood symptoms arise.
- Some evidence suggests that people living with bipolar disorder may have lower levels of serotonin, which may result in a craving for carbohydrates or sugars.
- BDNF, a brain and spinal cord protein, has many roles, but a few important ones are energy, mood, and appetite balance. During a bipolar disorder mood episode, BDNF can disrupt the suppression of appetite and mood, leading to binge eating.
In conclusion, bipolar disorder and binge eating are interconnected through shared genetic, hormonal, and psychological pathways, making their co-occurrence a complex clinical challenge that affects emotional regulation, physical health, and overall quality of life. Effective treatment typically requires integrated approaches addressing both mood instability and disordered eating behaviors.
- Genetic predisposition shared between bipolar disorder and binge eating could be a result of risk factors that affect brain chemistry and impulse control, as mentioned in the study.
- The association between bipolar disorder and binge eating has been supported by research, which suggests variance in the PRR5-ARHGAP8 gene as a possible cause.
- Co-occurring Binge Eating Disorder and bipolar disorder may lead to higher incidences of comorbidities, as mentioned in the study on teenagers and young adults, where 20% of participants had both conditions and PTSD.
