Posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms and food addiction in women by timing and type of trauma exposure.

ABSTRACT:

Importance

Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) appears to increase obesity risk but the pathways by which PTSD leads to weight gain are not known. Identification of the links between PTSD and obesogenic eating behaviors is necessary to clarify this pathway and inform development of obesity prevention strategies in PTSD-affected populations.

Objective

To determine whether women with PTSD symptoms are more likely to report food addiction, a measure of perceived dependence on food, than women without PTSD symptoms. Also, to determine whether age at PTSD symptom onset and type of trauma influence the PTSD-food addiction association.

Design, setting, and participants

Cross-sectional analysis of 49,408 participants in the Nurses' Health Study II, a cohort comprising women

SUBMITTER: Mason SM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4341890 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature