Depressed mood and negative affect have been found to predict future increases in symptoms of disordered eating, including binge eating. Specifically, depressed individuals may consume food to improve their mood or as an attempt to escape from adverse emotions. The pleasure they feel after eating may serve as a reinforcement, which in turn leads to continued overeating. Often, this develops into a cycle which can be difficult to break.

Binge eating severity and degree of depression are strongly related. Higher rates of clinical depression have been found in obese binge eaters compared to obese individuals who are not binge eaters. Furthermore, overweight and normal-weight binge eaters often have similar levels of depression, suggesting that binge eating, rather than body weight, is related to depression. In other words, of people who are obese, those who are obese and also binge eat are more likely to also be depressed, possibly as a result of their binge eating behavior. It has been suggested, then, that binge eating might therefore be link between depression and obesity, because often binge eating starts before a person becomes obese. Depression might also help explain why people become binge eaters. However, scientists are not really sure if depression comes first and leads to binge eating or if people begin binge eating and then become depressed because they cannot control their food intake.

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