Clinical validity of the descriptor. "presence of a belief that one must eat in order to get to sleep" in diagnosing the Night Eating Syndrome.

The diagnostic criteria for the Night Eating Syndrome (NES) published in 2010 require the presence of two core criteria: evening hyperphagia and/or nocturnal awakenings for ingestion of food and three of five diagnostic descriptors. One of the descriptors is as follows: "The belief that one must eat in order to fall asleep". In this study we evaluated whether this conviction is significantly more prominent in obese individuals suffering from insomnia and nocturnal eating, than among obese patients with insomnia who do not eat at night.

Defining the borders between Sleep-Related Eating Disorder and Night Eating Syndrome.

Objectives: Nocturnal eating is a common symptom of two clinical conditions with different pathogenesis and needing different therapeutic approaches: Sleep Related Eating Disorder (SRED) and Night Eating Syndrome (NES). The first is considered a parasomnia while the second is an eating disorder; however, the distinction between SRED and NES is still a controversial matter. The aim of this study was to better define psychological, behavioral, and polysomnographic characteristics of the two syndromes.

Eyes are bigger than the stomach: correlation between body mass index, satiety, and prediction of satiety.

We investigated if among adult subjects there is any correlation between body mass index (BMI), evaluation of current satiety after a standard meal and predicted satiety hypothesizing to have a second helping of the same food. One hundred and twenty-eight adult subjects randomly recruited during a village festival were included into the study; 20 were underweight, 74 normal weight and 34 overweight. Just after eating a highly caloric bean-soup, they were requested to evaluate current satiety and to predict their satiety before having a second helping of the same food they had just eaten to find out if there was any correlation between BMI and the evaluations.

Daily and nightly anxiety among patients affected by night eating syndrome and binge eating disorder.

We tested if there were any differences about nocturnal and diurnal anxiety between patients either affected by Binge Eating Disorder (BED) or Night eating Syndrome (NES). Fifty four patients affected by BED, 13 by NES and 16 by both BED and NES were tested using the Self Rating Anxiety Scale (SAS) and the Sleep Disturbance Questionnaire (SDQ). Their nocturnal eating behavior was ascertained through the Night Eating Questionnaire (NEQ).

Psychopathology and treatment of night eating syndrome: a review.

The article reviews the international literature about psychopathological aspects and treatments of Night Eating Syndrome (NES). Studies were found using Medline; data from recent international books and conferences about ED are included, but single case descriptions are not included in the study. NES seems to be consistently related to mood disorders and anxiety.