Patients with binge eating disorder (BED) display recurring episodes of eating large amounts of food in a short period of time, especially during negative mood states. However, the psychological processes linking negative mood to binge eating behavior have not been sufficiently explored. This study investigated the effects of experimentally inducing a negative (sad) mood state upon reaction times in a computerized Approach-Avoidance-Task (AAT) using images of foods and compared to a neutral control procedure in which negative mood was not induced. Differences in reaction times between “pulling” and “pushing away” food cues in the AAT were considered surrogates for fast, automatic (i.e., implicit) preferences (“bias”) for either the approach or avoidance of foods. Obese patients with BED (n = 40), weight-matched (obese) individuals (n = 40), and norm-weight controls (n = 29) were asked to approach (“pull”) or avoid (“push”) images of high- and low-calorie foods following the induction of a negative mood state vs. the neutral control procedure. Sample size was within the common range of previous investigations of the kind. Similar to previous findings, obese patients with BED exhibited an avoidance bias (i.e., faster reaction times in “pushing” compared to “pulling”) during the neutral control condition. However, a contrast analysis revealed that negative mood was associated with decreased avoidance bias in obese patients with BED, but not in obese and norm-weight controls. Mood status exerted no effect on BED patients’ self-reported (i.e., explicit) ratings of the urge to consume foods. These findings may help to advance current understanding of how negative (sad) mood states may affect binge eating behaviors. Implications of these findings for developing novel treatment approaches are discussed.

暴食症 (BED) 患者会在短时间内反复出现大量进食，尤其是在消极情绪状态下。然而，将消极情绪与暴饮暴食行为联系起来的心理过程尚未得到充分探索。本研究使用食物图像研究了在计算机化的方法 - 避免 - 任务 (AAT) 中通过实验诱导消极（悲伤）情绪状态对反应时间的影响，并与不诱导消极情绪的中性控制程序进行比较。AAT 中“拉”和“推开”食物线索之间反应时间的差异被认为是对接近或避免食物的快速、自动（即隐性）偏好（“偏见”）的替代物。BED 肥胖患者 (n = 40)，体重匹配（肥胖）个体 (n = 40)，和标准体重对照（n = 29）被要求接近（“拉”）或避免（“推”）在诱导消极情绪状态与中性控制程序后高热量和低热量食物的图像。样本大小在先前此类调查的共同范围内。与之前的研究结果相似，患有 BED 的肥胖患者在中性控制条件下表现出回避偏差（即，与“拉动”相比，“推”的反应时间更快）。然而，对比分析显示，消极情绪与 BED 肥胖患者的回避偏倚减少有关，但与肥胖和正常体重对照者无关。情绪状态对 BED 患者自我报告的（即明确的）进食冲动的评分没有影响。这些发现可能有助于促进当前对消极（悲伤）情绪状态如何影响暴饮暴食行为的理解。讨论了这些发现对开发新的治疗方法的影响。