Can GLP-1s Treat Emotional Eating and Binge Eating in People With Obesity?

While GLP-1 drugs can alter the chemistry of hunger in powerful ways, they don’t necessarily help with the emotional and psychological factors often found at the root of eating disorders. There is some preliminary evidence that these medications may be able to help some people binge less, but experts do not yet recommend them as a replacement for traditional mental health therapy.

GLP-1 receptor agonists seem to help reduce food noise by reducing hunger signaling and increasing satiety, says Chris Esposito, DO, a bariatric surgeon at Northwell’s Staten Island University Hospital in New York.

“Emotional eating can be multifactorial, but food provides a form of psychological comfort or outlet in times of stress,” Esposito says. “GLP-1s do not relieve stress or treat the underlying stressors.”

It is possible that GLP-1s can help suppress emotional eating: Esposito says that the feeling of fullness GLP-1s provide could make overeating as a response to emotional stress less desirable. However, these medications will not address other psychological factors involved in emotional eating, including anger, fear, or boredom, he says.

“I am not sure GLP-1s can help emotional eaters, and if they do, I fear that it’s only by helping people to restrict more — which is the opposite of what we do in psychotherapy for binge eating and emotional eating,” adds Lauren Muhlheim, PsyD, owner of Eating Disorder Therapy LA in Los Angeles.

“For some people with binge-type eating disorders, these medications appear to mitigate some of the biological roots of disordered eating,” says Kim Dennis, MD, founder of the therapy practice SunCloud Health in Chicago and member of the National Association of Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Disorders’ Scientific Advisory Board.

However, because of this medication’s limitations in terms of treating the emotional aspects of eating, it won’t address trauma or body image distortions, for example, if those issues are at the root of a person’s eating disorder, Dr. Dennis adds.

“Further evidence will be needed before we can see the complete picture, but they show promise as, at the minimum, an adjunct to current therapy,” says Esposito.

If you have a binge eating disorder or display symptoms of emotional eating, it’s important to discuss your symptoms with your provider to determine treatment options beyond any improvements you may see from GLP-1 medications.

• Eating an abnormally large amount of food
• Experiencing loss of control
• Eating far more rapidly than normal
• Eating until uncomfortably full
• Consuming large amounts of food when not physically hungry
• Eating alone out of embarrassment for the quantity
• Self-loathing, depression, or guilt after overeating

Purging food, vomiting, taking laxatives, or overexercising are not considered diagnostic criteria, and the behaviors above must occur at least once a week.

• GLP-1 weight loss drugs can reduce hunger and food noise, but they don’t address the underlying psychological drivers of emotional eating or eating disorders.
• There is limited evidence suggesting that GLP-1s can improve emotional eating, and they are not FDA approved for binge eating disorder. Small studies suggest that they may reduce binge eating behaviors for some, but they don’t treat trauma, stress, or body-image issues.
• If GLP-1s are taken to treat these issues, they should be accompanied by proper screening and mental-health treatment and other medications.