Night Eating May Be More Common in Bipolar Patients

By Reuters Staff

NEW YORK—Night-eating syndrome (NES) is more common among people with bipolar disorder (BD) than in the general population, new findings suggest.

NES is defined as consumption of at least 25% of the day's caloric intake after the evening meal, at least two nocturnal awakenings per week followed by eating, and other criteria, Dr. Matias Melo of Universidade Federal do Ceara in Fortaleza, Brazil, and colleagues explain.

Previous studies have linked NES to psychiatric disorders, including depression and anxiety, they note in Sleep Medicine, online May 7. "Additional research is important in bipolar patients, since this population is at greater risk of metabolic complications due to mental illness itself or to medications," they add.

Dr. Melo and his team enrolled 80 euthymic BD patients recruited from four different local institutions, with 40 medical staff members as a control group. Seven of the BD group (8.8%) had NES, while none of the control group did.

The BD patients with NES had significantly worse occupational, financial, intrapersonal and leisure time functioning than those without NES. They also had significantly more severe anxiety and insomnia and worse sleep quality. However, NES was not associated with anthropometric measures or metabolic factors.

"Therapies improving insomnia and sleep quality may be a helpful addition to the treatment of those with NES," Dr. Melo and colleagues write.

"Future studies considering therapeutic options for NES in BD patients should take into consideration sleep and circadian alterations. Further studies must also investigate the repercussions of NES in mood episodes in bipolar patients," they conclude.

Dr. Melo was not available for an interview by press time.

SOURCE: https://bit.ly/2LjB03E

Sleep Med 2018.

(c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2018. Click For Restrictions - https://agency.reuters.com/en/copyright.html