A scoping review of emotion regulation and inhibition in emotional eating and binge-eating disorder: what about a continuum?

Emotional eating (EE) is defined as a nonpathological eating behavior, whereas binge-eating disorder (BED) is defined as a pathological eating behavior. While different, both share some striking similarities, such as deficits in emotion regulation (ER) and inhibition. Previous research has suggested the existence of an “eating continuum” that might reflect the increased severity of overeating behaviors, that is, from nonpathological overeating to BED. The main aims of this scoping review were to explore in the literature the idea of a continuum between EE and BED and to observe whether deficits in ER and inhibition follow this continuum in terms of severity. A systematic scoping review was conducted, and thirty-two studies were included in this review. If the results showed a link between EE and BED, with the presence of inhibition and ER deficits in both eating behaviors, no mention of a continuum between EE and BED, or in relation to a continuum, was found. Thus, in the absence of research directly comparing EE and BED in the same studies and testing the potential increase in severity of ER and inhibition deficits along this continuum, there is currently no certainty about the existence or absence of such a continuum.