While anorexia and bulimia are arguably more talked about, binge-eating disorder is actually the most common eating disorder in the US. And as researchers explain, it’s apparently been a misunderstood one. A five-year study from researchers with McLean Hospital (part of the Mass General Brigham healthcare system) has found the disorder—which an estimated 2.8% of US adults will experience, per Psychology Today—lasts longer than previously assumed. Indeed, 61% of sufferers still exhibited full binge-eating disorder 2.5 years after being diagnosed; the figure dropped only slightly by the five-year mark, to 46%.
“Oftentimes the clients I work with report many, many years of binge-eating disorder, which felt very discordant with studies that suggested that it was a transient disorder,” says lead author Kristin Javaras in a press release. Those studies—which indicated remission could happen in one to two years—tended to be small and centered on homogenous groups of young females with BMIs under 30. In this study, 137 adults between the ages of 19 and 74 were followed for five years; their average BMI was 36. “The big takeaway is that binge-eating disorder does improve with time, but for many people it lasts years,” says Javaras.
The study, published Tuesday in Psychological Medicine, also found that relapses were common: Of the 16% of individuals who were in remission at the 2.5-year mark, a third of them had relapsed to either full binge-eating disorder or were experiencing “clinically significant but sub-threshold symptoms” at five years. Javaras noted studies that focused just on those in treatment (hers did not) saw faster remission times, indicating intervention can be effective. But no demographic characteristics emerged when it came to how long individuals experience the disorder. “This suggests that no one is much less or more likely to get better than anyone else,” says Javaras. (More discoveries stories.)
