- Posted August 5, 2025
Veterans' Study Points to Better Treatment for Binge Eating Disorder
There’s a better way of treating binge eating disorder, a new study argues.
The method, called “regulation of cues,” reduced patients’ odds of binge eating by 20% compared to those who got standard cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT), researchers reported Aug. 4 in JAMA Network Open.
“The study showed that our treatment could reduce binge eating more than standard therapy even after the six-month follow up,” researcher Kerri Boutelle, a professor of pediatrics at the University of California-San Diego Herbert Wertheim School of Public Health and Human Longevity Science, said in a news release.
Regulation of cues helps people by teaching them to become more attuned to the signals sent by their body when they are naturally hungry or full, researchers said in background notes.
Many people with eating disorders have lost touch with these signals or tend to ignore them.
The therapy also helps people learn to distinguish between true physical hunger and cravings driven by emotions, and also to resist the temptation posed by foods that can trigger overeating.
For this new study, researchers recruited 129 overweight or obese veterans being treated by the Veterans Affairs San Diego Healthcare System. All the vets either had binge eating disorder or were at high risk.
Binge eating — uncontrollably consuming large amounts of food — is common among military veterans, affecting 65% of female and 45% of male vets, researchers said. Military service frequently requires people to eat on the run or go without food, putting veterans at greater risk for binge eating.
The first-line treatment for binge eating is cognitive-behavioral therapy, in which people normalize their eating habits and address thoughts and behaviors that contribute to binging, researchers said.
But CBT doesn’t result in meaningful or lasting weight loss, researchers noted.
Researchers randomly assigned 63 of the patients to undergo regulation-of-cues therapy alongside a weight-loss program that included calorie monitoring and exercise. The rest received standard CBT.
Those who received regulation-of-cues therapy had a lower risk of binge eating, and also lost a greater amount of weight after five months, results show. However, the weight differences did not last longer.
“These findings suggest that targeting how individuals respond to food cues, rather than just focusing on eating behaviors or thoughts, may offer a more effective and lasting treatment for binge eating,” Boutelle said. “But more research is needed on the effects on weight.”
More information
The University of California-San Diego has more on regulation-of-cues therapy.
SOURCES: University of California-San Diego, news release, Aug. 4, 2025; JAMA Network Open, Aug. 4, 2025
