ASSESSMENT OF EXECUTIVE FUNCTIONING IN BINGE EATING DISORDER INDEPENDENT OF WEIGHT STATUS

Abstract

Executive functioning (EF) problems may serve as vulnerability or maintenance factors for Binge-Eating Disorder (BED). However, it is unclear if EF problems observed in BED are related to overweight status or BED status. The current study extends this literature by examining EF in overweight-BED (n=32), normal-weight BED (n=23), overweight healthy controls (n=48), and normal-weight healthy controls (n=48). Participants were administered an EF battery which utilized tests from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) toolkit and Delis-Kaplan Executive Function System (D-KEFS). After controlling for years of education and minority status, overweight individuals with and without BED performed more poorly than normal-weight individuals with and without BED on a task of cognitive flexibility (p < 0.01) requiring generativity and speed and on psychomotor performance tasks (p < 0.01). Normal-weight and overweight BED performed worse on working memory tasks compared to normal-weight healthy controls (p = 0.04). Unexpectedly, normal-weight BED individuals out-performed all other groups on an inhibitory control task (ps < 0.01). No significant differences were found between the four groups on tasks of planning. Our findings support a link between poorer working memory performance and BED status. Additionally, overweight status is associated with poorer psychomotor performance and cognitive inflexibility. Replication of the finding that normal-weight BED is associated with enhanced inhibitory control is needed.