Binge Eating Patients Cannot Stop Even Under Video Surveillance in Lab

What was said

"And even under video surveillance through a one-way mirror in a laboratory setting, when patients are very well aware that they're they're to be studied if they're going to binge. They still do. And we believe they do because they just can't control it, as aware as they are of it."

In controlled laboratory experiments at Penn Medicine, researchers found that patients with severe binge eating disorder continue to binge despite full awareness they are being watched and recorded. Psychiatrists deliberately provoke moods associated with binges while monitoring brain activity, revealing that the most severe cases involve complete loss of volitional control regardless of conscious awareness.