Every second person taking part in the National Addiction Survey declared that they struggle with alcohol addiction. Overeating, indicated most frequently by women, also ranked high.

The National Survey of Addictions is a project initiated by two scientists of the Polish Academy of Sciences: Dr Mateusz Gola and Maciej Skorko. It was conducted for the first time in late 2018 and early 2019. The second phase ran from June to September 2022 via the Nałogometr app – a freely available tool that supports addicts in coping with addiction and understanding what causes the feeling of addiction ‘hunger’. 

Throughout the period of the study, the Nałogometr was downloaded by 20,826 people – not only from Poland, but also from abroad (mainly from the UK, Germany, and the Netherlands). All the conditions necessary to join the survey were met by 15 477 people. Nearly half of them declared that they were struggling with alcohol addiction, which dominated almost every group. Almost, because women most often indicated overeating.

According to classifications of disorders and diseases – such as the World Health Organisation’s International Classification of Diseases – overeating is not an addiction, but an eating disorder if it leads to significant weight gain. 

“Modern brain research increasingly shows that the mechanisms underlying compulsive overeating may resemble those known from behavioural addictions, such as gambling or computer game addiction. With the proliferation of fast food and easily accessible snacks and drinks with high amounts of sugar, the problem of overeating has greatly increased”, says Dr Mateusz Gola.

The obtained data will allow Polish researchers to further improve and increase the effectiveness of intelligent support tools. They will help the addict to anticipate a situation leading to an unconscious desire to break abstinence or return to addictive behaviour.

Arkadiusz Słomczyński