PERSPECTIVE article
Front. Psychiatry
Sec. Addictive Disorders
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2025.1586490
This article is part of the Research TopicUltra-Processed Food Addiction: Moving toward Consensus on Mechanisms, Definitions, Assessment, and InterventionView all 8 articles
Abstinence-Based Treatment of Comorbid Eating Disorders and Ultra-Processed Food Addiction
Provisionally accepted
- 1University of Rochester, Rochester, United States
- 2Private Practice, Dr. Joy Jacobs Inc, Los Angeles, California, United States
- 3Nutrition in Recovery LLC, Los Angeles, California, United States
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The overlap between ultra-processed food addiction (UPFA) and eating disorders (EDs) is of clinical interest. A recent meta-analysis showed that over half of people with an ED also screen positive for UPFA. Yet treatment for comorbid UPFA and ED is understudied and presents many challenges. The authors have decades of clinical experience working with this unique patient population. This perspective paper will explore many aspects of this contentious topic and argue for, as well as against, a nuanced and multifactorial approach to using abstinence-based treatment approaches in the treatment of comorbid UPFA and ED.
Keywords: eating disorder (ED), ultra processed food addiction, Abstinence Based Treatment, abstinence based treatment in food addiction, food addiction abstinence OR harm reduction, food addiction intervention, Eating disorder treatment
Received: 03 Mar 2025; Accepted: 03 Jun 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Thompson, Jacobs and Wiss. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Susan Peirce Thompson, University of Rochester, Rochester, United States
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