According to Felitti 1993, obese applicants were found to be different at a highly significant level in the prevalence of childhood sexual abuse, nonsexual childhood abuse, early parental loss, parental alcoholism, chronic depression, and marital family dysfunction in their own adult lives. The obese patients commonly reported using obesity as a sexually protective device; many reported overeating to cope with emotional distress.
Grilo & Masheb 2001 examined 145 outpatients with binge eating disorder and found that 83% of BED patients reported some form of childhood maltreatment. A total of 59% of BED patients reported emotional abuse, 36% reported physical abuse, 30% reported sexual abuse, 69% reported emotional neglect, and 49% reported physical neglect.