The purpose of this study is to examine the role of stress in food craving and food consumption in obesity. Using experimentally validated guided imagery procedure, the investigators propose to examine the stress response using subjective, physiological and neurobiological measurements.
One hundred and fifty men and women will participate in three laboratory sessions to assess stress responses to personal stress imagery, food cue imagery, and to neutral-relaxing imagery. Subjects will be distributed into 3 groups stratified by BMI category. Subject recruitment, eligibility determination, baseline assessments and script development will be conducted at the Yale Stress Center. Subjects will complete a variety of diagnostic, cognitive and psychological assessments, a comprehensive physical examination and blood work and will be involved in development of imagery scripts from personal stress, food cue and neutral-relaxing situations. Subjects will then be scheduled for three laboratory sessions at the Yale Stress Center. Subjects will also participate in an imagery and relaxation training session followed by three laboratory sessions. The three laboratory sessions will be conducted within a brief interval of days, when subjects will be exposed to a personal stress, a food cue and a neutral-relaxing imagery condition, one condition per day. The order of imagery conditions will be randomly assigned and counterbalanced across subjects in order to balance any influences due to order of imagery conditions.
Study Type
INTERVENTIONAL
Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Purpose
OTHER
Masking
NONE
Enrollment
160
The stress imagery script will be based on subjects' description of a recent personal stressful event that they had experienced as "most stressful". "Most stressful" is determined by having the subjects rate the perceived stress experienced by them on a 10-point Likert scale where "1=not at all stressful" and "10=the most stress they felt recently in their life". Only situations rated as 8 or above on this scale are accepted as appropriate for script development. Examples of acceptable stressful situations include breakup with significant other, a verbal argument with a significant other or family member or unemployment-related stress, such as being fired or laid off from work.
A food cue script will be developed from the subjects' experience of eating their most favorite foods. Examples include ordering pizza, cooking a favorite meal, or going out to a restaurant.
Yale University
New Haven, Connecticut, United States
Food Craving based on the Food Craving Inventory
An abbreviated assessment base don the Food Craving Inventory. The Food Craving Inventory is a self-report questionnaire of specific food cravings. The questionnaire consists of 25 items measuring the frequency of cravings for specific foods and consists of 4 factors or subscales measuring cravings for High Fats, Carbohydrates/Starches, Sweets, and Fast Food Fats and also generates a total score. The brief version of the inventory uses 2 items from each of the 4 subscales.
Time frame: Baseline
Food Craving based on the Food Craving Inventory
An abbreviated assessment base don the Food Craving Inventory. The Food Craving Inventory is a self-report questionnaire of specific food cravings. The questionnaire consists of 25 items measuring the frequency of cravings for specific foods and consists of 4 factors or subscales measuring cravings for High Fats, Carbohydrates/Starches, Sweets, and Fast Food Fats and also generates a total score. The brief version of the inventory uses 2 items from each of the 4 subscales.
Time frame: Immediately After Image
Food Craving based on the Food Craving Inventory
An abbreviated assessment base don the Food Craving Inventory at plus 5 minutes. The Food Craving Inventory is a self-report questionnaire of specific food cravings. The questionnaire consists of 25 items measuring the frequency of cravings for specific foods and consists of 4 factors or subscales measuring cravings for High Fats, Carbohydrates/Starches, Sweets, and Fast Food Fats and also generates a total score. The brief version of the inventory uses 2 items from each of the 4 subscales.
Time frame: 5 minutes
Food Craving based on the Food Craving Inventory
An abbreviated assessment base don the Food Craving Inventory at plus 15 minutes. The Food Craving Inventory is a self-report questionnaire of specific food cravings. The questionnaire consists of 25 items measuring the frequency of cravings for specific foods and consists of 4 factors or subscales measuring cravings for High Fats, Carbohydrates/Starches, Sweets, and Fast Food Fats and also generates a total score. The brief version of the inventory uses 2 items from each of the 4 subscales.
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A neutral-relaxing script will be developed from the subjects' commonly experienced neutral-relaxing situations, such as a trip to the beach or park.
Time frame: 15 minutes
Food Craving based on the Food Craving Inventory
An abbreviated assessment base don the Food Craving Inventory at plus 30 minutes. The Food Craving Inventory is a self-report questionnaire of specific food cravings. The questionnaire consists of 25 items measuring the frequency of cravings for specific foods and consists of 4 factors or subscales measuring cravings for High Fats, Carbohydrates/Starches, Sweets, and Fast Food Fats and also generates a total score. The brief version of the inventory uses 2 items from each of the 4 subscales.
Time frame: 30 minutes
Food Craving based on the Food Craving Inventory
An abbreviated assessment base don the Food Craving Inventory at plus 45 minutes. The Food Craving Inventory is a self-report questionnaire of specific food cravings. The questionnaire consists of 25 items measuring the frequency of cravings for specific foods and consists of 4 factors or subscales measuring cravings for High Fats, Carbohydrates/Starches, Sweets, and Fast Food Fats and also generates a total score. The brief version of the inventory uses 2 items from each of the 4 subscales.
Time frame: 45 minutes
Food Craving based on the Food Craving Inventory
An abbreviated assessment base don the Food Craving Inventory at plus 60 minutes. The Food Craving Inventory is a self-report questionnaire of specific food cravings. The questionnaire consists of 25 items measuring the frequency of cravings for specific foods and consists of 4 factors or subscales measuring cravings for High Fats, Carbohydrates/Starches, Sweets, and Fast Food Fats and also generates a total score. The brief version of the inventory uses 2 items from each of the 4 subscales.
Time frame: 60 minutes
food snack intake
Food snacks are offered after each imagery condition and weighed for snack consumption.After each imagery period, subjects are presented with 3 bowls of highly palatable (chocolate pudding; potato chips, mini chocolate chip cookies) and 3 bowls of healthy food snacks (baby carrots; grapes), each portioned to \~500 calories (3000 calories per lab session).
Time frame: 30 minutes