Night Eating Syndrome: A Psychiatric Disease, a Sleep Disorder, a Delayed Circadian Eating Rhythm, And/Or a Metabolic Condition? Publisher Pubmed



Shoar S^{1, 2} ; Naderan M² ; Mahmoodzadeh H³ ; Shoar N⁴ ; Lotfi D^{1, 2}
Source: Expert Review of Endocrinology and Metabolism Published:2019

Abstract

Introduction: Night Eating Syndrome (NES) refers to an abnormal eating behavior which presents as evening hyperphagia consuming >25% calorie intake and/or nocturnal awaking with food ingestion which occurs ≥2 times per week. Although the syndrome has been described more than seven decades ago, the literature has been growing slowly on its etiology, diagnosis, and treatment. Areas covered: The proposed treatment options for NES are all at a case-study level. Moreover, our understanding of its etiology, comorbidities, and diagnosis is still premature. We performed a literature review in Medline/PubMed to identify all the studies proposing a management plan for NES and summarized all the existing data on its diagnosis and treatment. Expert opinion: To date, none of the proposed treatment options for NES have been promising and long-term data on its efficacy is lacking. The slow growth of evidence on this debilitating but underreported condition may be due to unawareness among clinicians, under-reporting by patients, and unrecognized diagnostic criteria. Objective screening of symptoms during office visits especially for patients at a high-risk for NES will identify more patients suffering from the syndrome. © 2019, © 2019 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.