Introduction: Food addiction affects up to 20% of the general public and poses a significant public health burden that contributes to the obesity epidemic. Despite this impact, previous reviews found few evidence-based treatments for food addiction. The ongoing debate around food addiction has led to a growing interest in this condition and how to treat it.
Purpose: To evaluate the effectiveness of psychosocial food addiction treatments.
Method: Seven databases and three clinical trial registries were searched and included articles that reported empirical data on psychosocial interventions for food addiction or related constructs (e.g., cravings). The study was conducted in accordance with PRISMA guidelines and used the revised JBI critical appraisal tools. Pooled effect sizes were calculated to compare effectiveness.
Results: The searches identified 23 articles, of which 15 articles targeted related constructs or symptoms, and 8 articles focused on food addiction. In these results, 14 articles had a comparator to demonstrate intervention efficacy, and ten of the studies had follow-up data. Examining the pre-post results, there were improvements with significant large positive effects for food addiction (g = 1.70, 95% CI 0.89 - 2.51), but when compared against controls, the effects become non-significant for food addiction (g = 1.08, 95% CI -0.32 - 2.48) and other outcomes.
Conclusion: There was no evidence that psychosocial interventions were effective in reducing food addiction. However there is evidence that engagement in a psychosocial intervention resulted in significant (pre/post) reductions in food addiction and related constructs. There are commonalities across treatment components, such as improving eating self-efficacy, and thus these could serve as a foundation for a more tailored food addiction intervention design. Future research efforts could be improved by adopting a clear theoretical approach, recruiting participants with food addiction, including treatment comparators, and collecting follow-up data.