Assessment of and Treatment Applied to Food Addiction to Encourage Self-Management of Obesity in a Rural Healthy Behaviors Clinic

Research purpose: The purpose of this pilot study is to assess obese clients for two phenotypes, those testing positive and those testing negative for Food Addiction (FA) (Yale Food Addiction Scale, YFAS) and determining the efficacy of four treatments: usual care (IC, dietary and physical activity instruction), individual motivational interviewing alone (MI), individual MI with pharmacotherapy (MI+P) for improving outcome measures within each phenotype, and pharmacological therapy (P).

Background/significance: Obesity has long been an epidemic in the U.S. and other countries. Numerous approaches have been tried to address obesity with limited success. The YFAS is a relatively new, validated instrument that can help researchers and practitioners assess obese clients for food addiction. Meeting the YFAS diagnosis criteria for FA suggests the need for a stronger intervention with close monitoring to assist these clients in self-management of their eating and physical activity behaviors.

Proposed methods/approach: The investigators propose assessing obese clients with the YFAS as part of their intake once they are referred to the Healthy Behaviors Clinic by Regional West physicians/practitioners. A nurse researcher with expertise in MI and a nurse practitioner will perform intake assessments, obtain consent and randomly assign participants in each phenotype (positive or negative for FA) to one of three treatment groups (usual care, individual MI alone, and individual MI with pharmacotherapy). Interventions will occur over 6 months. A clinical psychologist with expertise in the YFAS (University of Michigan) will serve as a consultant on this project and a registered dietitian (University of NebraskaLincoln) will serve as a co-investigator.

Expected outcomes: The investigators expect that MI and MI+P and P will be more effective in improving outcome measures than IC. We also expect that response to the treatments will differ between the two obesity phenotypes (those testing positive and those testing negative for FA).