Emotion regulation and mentalization in people at risk for food addiction

We investigated the association among food addiction, difficulties in emotion regulation, and mentalization deficits in a sample of 322 Italian adults from the general population. All participants were administered the Italian versions of the Yale Food Addiction Scale (I-YFAS), the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale, the Mentalization Questionnaire, the Binge Eating Scale, and the Michigan Alcohol Screening Test. Over 7 percent (7.1%) of the respondents reported high food addiction symptoms (i.e., 3 or more symptoms of food addiction on the I-YFAS). In the bivariate analyses, high food addiction symptoms were associated with more difficulties in emotion regulation and mentalization deficits. In the multivariate analysis, high food addiction symptoms remained independently associated with mentalization deficits, but not with difficulties in emotion regulation. Our data suggests that mentalization may play an important role in food addiction by making it difficult for an individual to understand his/her inner own mental states as well as the mental states of others, especially when powerful emotions arise.