Figure 1: Timeline of the evolution of classification criteria for BED.
The first description of binge eating is attributed to the American psychiatrist Albert J Stunkard in the late 1950s237, while another American psychiatrist, Walter W Hamburger, a few years earlier laid the foundation for the understanding that obesity entails also emotional aspects238. These early notions focus on binge eating as a behaviour, and it took two decades until binge eating was introduced as a core symptom of an eating disorder, bulimia nervosa (BN), in the third edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM)239. Fourteen years later, BED was included as a research diagnosis into the fourth edition of the DSM240, including a more specified definition of binge eating as a core psychopathology and a time criterion. BED was finally recognized as an official diagnosis in DSM-5 a decade later1. Compared with the research criteria, the DSM-5 criteria include a loosening of the time criterion with binge eating episodes occurring at least once a week over three months necessary to fulfil the diagnosis. BED is also included in the International Classification of Diseases 11th Revision (ICD-11)2. The ICD has loosened criteria around the ‘large amount’ of food ingested, allowing subjective binge eating2, which will put challenges towards consistent application of diagnostic criteria. EDNOS, eating disorder not otherwise specified.