Attentional bias in eating disorders: a meta‐review

Objective This meta-review summarizes and synthesizes the most reliable findings regarding attentional bias in eating disorders across paradigms and stimulus types and considers implications for theory and future research.

Method Four databases were systematically searched, along with reference lists of included reviews, yielding 15 systematic reviews (four of which were also meta-analyses). The quality of each review was appraised using the AMSTAR-2.

Results Key findings from systematic reviews are summarized, organized by paradigm and stimulus type.

Discussion The authors synthesize evidence from the highest-quality studies. There is evidence for attentional avoidance and vigilance in eating disorders depending on stimulus properties (low vs. high-calorie food; high-body mass vs. low-body mass index photos of others) and attentional avoidance of food stimuli in those with anorexia nervosa. Sad mood induction may generate attentional bias for food in those with binge-eating disorder. There may also be attentional bias to general threat in eating disorder samples. This meta-review concludes that most systematic reviews in this field are low in quality and summarizes the main areas that could be improved upon in future reviews. Implications of this study's findings for theory and intervention research are also discussed.