Despite all study types being included in this review, all studies that met the inclusion criteria were cross-sectional in design, restricting causal inferences from being drawn for FA and mental health symptoms. There was also an over-representation of women; hence, more work needs to be conducted to firmly establish whether an independent ‘food addiction’ construct exists in broader population groups, particularly males.

This review synthesises the current evidence base of food addiction and mental health symptoms. The results highlight that the research area of food addiction is still in its infancy. Similar to other comorbidities, such as depression and addiction, which often co-occur together, FA could also be a potential contributor to mental health disorders, and is worthy of future research. The results of the review provide insight indicating that recruitment to FA studies without the co-morbidities of depression or binge eating may be difficult. Future studies will need to screen for these conditions, and adjust for these confounders in their statistical analysis. Importantly, a failure to do so may have been contributing to the controversies reported in the existing literature about the concept of FA as a distinct disorder from the other comorbidities with which it may present, as well as the challenges reported in treating eating disorders and obesity in the
broader research and clinical literature.