Here’s what I'm learning about this morning.
Binge eating in ADHD teens
I’ve been reading a study about binge eating in children and teens with ADHD—and it’s leaving me with questions.
This particular study looked at how often binge eating occurs in teens with ADHD who are taking non-stimulant medication.
But first—what’s the difference between binge eating and bulimia?
Binge eating is when someone eats a large amount of food in a short period of time and feels like they can’t stop, even when they’re full.
Bulimia includes bingeing, but also involves harmful efforts to “undo” it—like vomiting, over-exercising, or restricting.
Even if a teen doesn’t meet the full criteria for an eating disorder, binge eating on its own can still be deeply distressing and disruptive.
In this study, the strongest link was found between impulsivity and binge eating.
That made a lot of sense to me.
Many ADHD individuals experience the world with greater emotional, sensory, and urge-based intensity—which can be hard to manage without the right tools or support. In those moments, food can become a form of body-based regulation.
So if a child doesn’t have strategies to handle those intense internal experiences, impulsive eating might become one way their nervous system tries to cope.
And because ADHD is so often misunderstood as simply a behavior issue, it makes sense that “eating disorder” literature might miss these deeper connections.
This study was conducted in Egypt and followed 75 children with ADHD over six months. All participants were on non-stimulant medication, and researchers used several validated tools to measure impulsivity and binge eating behaviors.
Interestingly, they didn’t find major differences based on gender or ADHD type.
But the strongest pattern was clear:
The more impulsive the child, the more likely they were to binge eat.
Only 9.3% of the kids in this study showed signs of binge eating—much lower than the 26% reported in earlier studies. One possible reason? These kids were all on medication. It’s possible that for some, the meds helped reduce impulsivity—and with it, the urge to binge eat.
Of course, it was a small study.
But it raises important questions.
How do we support ADHD teens who are struggling with issues like binge eating?
It made me wonder:
Are eating disorder clinics designed with neurodivergent teens in mind?
Do they make space for sensory overload, emotional dysregulation, or the challenge of feeling disconnected from one’s body?
Do they view these behaviors as different—as forms of body-based regulation?
Because that’s what it often is ( I think).
And what would it look like if they did?
I suspect we still have a long way to go.
What are your thoughts?
This makes a lot of sense! Fortunately, I have seen an increased awareness of neurodivergence in many of the eating disorder treatment centers locally, and have taken continuing education about this convergence. Most of the studies I have come across also point to the increased prevalence of binge eating disorders among folks with ADHD, but not anorexia, which, of course, involves so much constraint.
Managing ADHD in patients with eating disorders is especially challenging because the most effective medications often suppress appetite, which can reinforce restrictive eating behaviors. On the other hand, impulsive eating is very common in individuals with untreated ADHD and not treating this risks obesity and all of the health risks it incurs. There's a well-established, bidirectional relationship between ADHD and obesity: ADHD increases the risk of obesity, and obesity can worsen ADHD symptoms. I agree with you and hope that people who work in eating disorder clinics recognize the complex comorbid relationship with ADHD and eating disorders.