The association between anxiety sensitivity and food cravings among individuals seeking treatment for weight-related behaviors.

Background: A better understanding of risk-factors associated with state-like food cravings may be one clinically relevant component in an effort to better understand obesity. Existing work has shown anxiety sensitivity (AS) to be a significant risk factor for increased cravings across a variety of health behaviors (e.g., smoking, alcohol use). Yet, no work has examined the relationship between AS and state-like food cravings. Therefore, the current study sought to examine the association between AS and a variety of state-like food cravings, including: (1) an intense desire to eat, (2) anticipation of relief from negative states and feelings/improvement in mood that may result from eating, (3) obsessive preoccupation with food or lack of control over eating, and (4) craving as a physiological state.

Methods: Participants included 161 (M = 31.58, SD = 10.71; 60.9 % female) individuals seeking treatment for weight-related behaviors.

Results: Results indicated that elevated AS was associated with reinforcement-based and physiological food cravings.

Conclusion: Our findings indicate that there may be clinical utility in screening for AS among individuals seeking treatment for weight-related behaviors in efforts to better understand specific types of food craving.