To inform clinical decision-making for patients with obesity, binge eating disorder (BED) and bipolar disorder (BD), we compared individuals with BED and those without BED who participated in a randomised controlled trial (RCT) of liraglutide for weight loss in stable BD with obesity. This was a post hoc analysis of a published, 40-week, placebo-controlled, double-blind trial of liraglutide in 60 participants with stable BD and obesity or overweight. Participants with BED were compared to those without BED regarding demographics, psychiatric and medical comorbidity, BD treatment, and response to liraglutide versus placebo. Compared to those without BED (N = 43), participants with BED (N = 17) had a higher body mass index (BMI) and higher HbA1c levels, were taking more antidepressants, and had higher Binge Eating Scale (BES) scores and Three Factor Eating Questionnaire (TFEQ) disinhibition of eating and hunger subscale scores. Among the 17 BED participants, liraglutide (N = 9) and placebo (n = 8) were associated with similar reductions in percent change of body weight and BES scores. Liraglutide was well tolerated, but the BED group experienced significantly more nausea/vomiting (p = .04), constipation (p = .02) and anxiety (p = .02). RCTs are warranted to enrich the pharmacological armamentarium available to treat such complex patients.
Guerdjikova et al. (Sun,) studied this question.