(Philadelphia, PA) - According to a study that appears in the January 1 issue of The American Journal of Psychiatry, researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and the University of Minnesota found that night eating syndrome is a common disorder among psychiatric outpatients and is associated with substance use and obesity.

Night eating syndrome is a condition that is characterized by two main features: excessive eating in the evening (hyperphagia) and nocturnal awakening with ingestion of food. Its prevalence has been estimated to be 1.5% in the general population and 8.9% in an obesity clinic.

“This is the first study that looks at the connection between psychiatric conditions and night eating syndrome,” said Jennifer D. Lundgren, PhD, lead author of the paper and postdoctoral research associate in Penn’s Department of Psychiatry, Division of Weight and Eating Disorders. “Night eating syndrome is often associated with life stress and depression, so we were particularly interested in looking at the prevalence of the condition in this population,” said Lundgren.

The research was supported by the National Institute of Mental Health and the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Disease.

Study Protocol
The study consisted of 399 participants from psychiatric outpatient clinics. Participants were screened using a questionnaire to assess hunger and craving patterns, percentage of calories consumed following the evening meal, insomnia and awakenings, nocturnal food cravings and ingestions, and mood. Those who scored above cutoff on the questionnaire were then interviewed by phone and diagnosed with night eating syndrome if one or both of the following criteria were met: 1) evening hyperphagia and/or 2) nocturnal awakenings with ingestions of food occurring three or more times per week.

Conclusions
Based on the total group of 399 participants, the prevalence of night eating syndrome was 12.3%, which exceeds the prevalence of the condition in an obesity clinic.

The study revealed a significant effect of night eating syndrome diagnosis on body mass index (subjects with night eating syndrome: mean = 33.1kg/m2; subjects without night eating syndrome: mean = 27.7 kg/m2). Additionally, obesity was present in 57.1% of participants with night eating syndrome and obese patients with psychiatric conditions were 5 times more likely than non-obese patients to exhibit the condition.

Substance abuse was also more likely to occur among patients with night eating syndrome (30.6%) than among those without night eating syndrome (8.3%). It was reported that alcohol was the most commonly abused substance.

“Given the prevalence of night eating syndrome among outpatients with psychiatric conditions, our findings indicate that mental health practitioners will need to screen for and incorporate appropriate treatment options into their practice,” said John P. O’Reardon, MD, a co-author of the study, Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at Penn, and Director of Penn’s Treatment Resistant Depression Clinic. Recent studies have found the antidepressant setraline (Zoloft®) to significantly improve symptoms of night eating syndrome, including nocturnal ingestion and evening hyperphagia.

###

PENN Medicine is a $2.7 billion enterprise dedicated to the related missions of medical education, biomedical research, and high-quality patient care. PENN Medicine consists of the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine (founded in 1765 as the nation's first medical school) and the University of Pennsylvania Health System.

Penn’s School of Medicine is ranked #2 in the nation for receipt of NIH research funds; and ranked #4 in the nation in U.S. News & World Report’s most recent ranking of top research-oriented medical schools. Supporting 1,400 fulltime faculty and 700 students, the School of Medicine is recognized worldwide for its superior education and training of the next generation of physician-scientists and leaders of academic medicine.

The University of Pennsylvania Health System comprises: its flagship hospital, the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, consistently rated one of the nation’s “Honor Roll” hospitals by U.S. News & World Report; Pennsylvania Hospital, the nation's first hospital; Penn Presbyterian Medical Center; a faculty practice plan; a primary-care provider network; two multispecialty satellite facilities; and home health care and hospice.