Latent profiles of cannabis use patterns and associations with eating pathology outcomes

Abstract

As recreational cannabis increases among United States adults, there is growing interest in understanding potential health co-morbidities. Although past work supports cannabis use and eating disorder comorbidity, and cannabis enhances appetite and reward responses to food, little is known about how specific cannabis use patterns may relate to binge eating and other eating disorder symptoms. The purpose of this study is to identify distinct subgroups of recreational cannabis users based on several use characteristics, including subjective changes to appetite and hedonic properties of food using latent profile analysis, and to examine differences across profiles in binge eating, other eating disorder symptoms, and emotion regulation. Participants (N = 435, male = 189) were adults recruited through Prolific who endorsed past-month cannabis use and completed a battery of self-report measures assessing cannabis use characteristics, eating changes while using cannabis, eating disorder symptoms, and emotion regulation. Results identified four profiles: “Infrequent Users, Moderate Eating Changes, Low Risk,” “Intense Users, Low Eating Changes, Mild Risk,” “High-Risk Coping Users, Strong Eating Changes,” and “Frequent Users, Slight Eating Changes, Mild Risk.” All profiles reported more binge eating symptoms while under the influence of cannabis; the “High Risk Coping Users, Strong Eating Changes” profile reported the most severe sober binge eating, eating disorder, and emotion regulation difficulties. Findings highlight the utility of person-centered approaches for capturing co-morbidity risk and may help guide screening and intervention tools for determining eating disorder risk among those using cannabis.