Does implicit emotion regulation in binge eating disorder matter?

• Implicit emotion regulation (IER) is emotion regulation occurring outside of awareness.
• We compare IER task performance between adults with BED and healthy controls.
• We correlate IER task performance with explicit emotion regulation and ED symptoms.
• Preliminary results indicate that IER task performance may be a change mechanism in BED.

ObjectiveTo examine if implicit emotion regulation (occurring outside of awareness) is related to binge eating disorder (BED) symptomatology and explicit emotion regulation (occurring within awareness), and can be altered via intervention.MethodsImplicit emotion regulation was assessed via the Emotion Conflict Task (ECT) among a group of adults with BED. Study 1 correlated BED symptomatology and explicit emotion regulation with ECT performance at baseline (BL) and after receiving BED treatment (PT). Study 2 generated effect sizes comparing ECT performance at BL and PT with healthy (non-eating disordered) controls (HC).ResultsStudy 1 yielded significant correlations (p < .05) between both BED symptomatology and explicit emotion regulation with ECT performance. Study 2 found that compared to BL ECT performance, PT shifted (d = − .27), closer to HC. Preliminary results suggest a) BED symptomatology and explicit emotion regulation are associated with ECT performance, and b) PT ECT performance normalized after BED treatment.ConclusionsImplicit emotion regulation may be a BED treatment mechanism because psychotherapy, directly or indirectly, decreased sensitivity to implicit emotional conflict. Further understanding implicit emotion regulation may refine conceptualizations and effective BED treatments.