性格冲动的人更易患食物上瘾症

People with an impulsive personality may be more likely to have a food addiction, according to a new study by researchers at the University of Georgia.

The study found that people exhibiting impulsive behavior weren’t necessarily overweight, but impulsivity was linked to a compulsive relationship with food and, as a result, less healthy weight.

Food addiction has been compared to addictive drug use. Studies have linked the dopamine release that occurs after tasting delicious food to the dopamine release that happens when people consume other addictive substances.

Impulsive behavior involves several personality traits. Two of these traits —known as negative urgency and lack of perseverance —were particularly associated with food addiction and high BMI during the study.

Negative urgency is characterized by the tendency to behave impulsively when experiencing negative emotions. For some, that means drinking alcohol or doing drugs. For others, it could mean eating to feel better.

Lack of perseverance is when a person has a hard time completing hard or boring tasks. People with a lack of perseverance might have a difficult time following through with attempts to change addictive eating behaviors, which could also cause an overweight or obese BMI.

Impulsivity might be one reason why some people eat in an addictive way despite motivation to lose weight, said Dr. Ashley Gearhardt, a clinical psychologist who helped develop the Yale Food Addiction Scale.

“One of the key hallmarks of addiction is impulsivity,” said Gearhardt, now an assistant professor at the University of Michigan.

“We were theorizing that if food addiction is really a thing, then our measure [the Yale Food Addiction Scale] should be related to impulsive action.”

Clinical psychologist Dr. James MacKillop, whose lab was behind the study, believes that therapies used to treat addictive drug behaviors could help people who suffer from addictive eating habits.

“Most of the programs for weight loss at this point focus on the most obvious things, which are clearly diet and exercise,” MacKillop said. “It seems like craving management or managing acute desires to eat would have a natural fit within the domain of skills a person would need to eat healthily.”

美国乔治亚大学的研究人员进行的一项新研究表明，性格冲动的人更易患暴饮暴食症。

这项研究发现，表现出性格冲动的人不一定都面临着超重问题，但冲动性格和过度饮食有着必然联系，而过度饮食就会导致不健康的体重。

食物成瘾已与药物上瘾无异。有研究发现品尝美味之后释放出的多巴胺与人们使用其他上瘾的物质后释放的多巴胺有关联。

冲动行为包括多种性格特点。在这项研究中，这其中两个特点——急躁和缺乏毅力尤其与食物成瘾及较高的体重指数联系在一起。

急躁是指处于消极情绪时表现出的一种冲动行为。对于一些人来说，酗酒和吸毒位列其中。对于另一些人来说，这里面也包含为了让自己感觉好些而吃东西。

缺乏毅力指遇到困难或无聊的任务时难以顺利愉快地完成。缺乏毅力的人难以坚持改变其成瘾性饮食问题，这也可能导致身体超重或体重指数上升。

临床心理医生阿什利·吉尔哈德博士表示，冲动的性格也可以从一方面解释为什么即使有些人有减肥的动力却难以改变成瘾性饮食方式。他协助制订出了耶鲁食物成瘾刻度表。

“成瘾的一个主要标志就是冲动，”吉尔哈德说道。他现在是密歇根大学的助理教授。

“我们正在对食物成瘾是否真正存在进行理论化研究，之后我们的措施（即耶鲁食物成瘾刻度表）应该与解决冲动行为有关。”

临床心理医生詹姆斯·麦克克罗普博士认为，用于治疗吸毒成瘾行为的疗法可以帮助医治患有食物成瘾症的病人。他所在的实验室在进行此项研究。

“目前大多数减重项目都把注意力放在最明显的事情上——显然就是饮食和锻炼，”麦克克罗普说道。“似乎控制想要进食的急切渴望与人们健康饮食所需要的技能关系紧密。”