ABSTRACT
In recent years, the food addiction (FA) construct has become a topic of increasing interest in the scientific community. Although basic research has shown similar biological substrates between excessive food intake and addictive behaviours, the literature has provided seemingly contradictory results, and there have been limited longitudinal data generated from clinical populations. In this chapter, the state of the art of FA will be discussed. Different clinical populations, ranging from patients with eating disorders (ED) and obesity to behavioural addictions and the potentially shared and differential vulnerabilities among them will be covered. The main aim of this chapter is to explore underlying sociocultural and psychological factors related to FA in women. The issues considered include the following: a) the current state of the FA construct and controversies; b) patients characteristics in different clinical pictures (ED, obesity, behavioural addiction, bariatric surgery patients) and associated risk factors; and c) therapeutic implications and future research.
