The night eating syndrome and bulimia in the morbidly obese

✍ Scribed by Kuldau, John M. ;Rand, Colleen S. W.

• Publisher: Wiley (John Wiley & Sons)
• Year: 1986
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 316 KB
• Volume: 5
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0276-3478
• DOI: 10.1002/1098-108x(198601)5:1<143::aid-eat2260050114>3.0.co;2-t

✦ Synopsis

The relationship between two pathological eating syndromes, the night eating syndrome (NES) and bulimia, was examined in a sample of 1 74 morbidly obese adults. The prevalence of NES (15%) and bulimia (2%) was greater among the morbidly obese compared to the normal weight sample (under 1 % for both syndromes). The scales measuring NES and bulimia were positively correlated and both were positively related to measures of psychoneuroticism.

Concerns about eating disorders and obesity have caught the public imagination. Anorexia nervosa and bulimia, now DSM-111 formal diagnoses, have become household words. The night eating syndrome (NES), however, has largely escaped attention since it was first described over 25 years ago (Stunkard et al., 1955). Stunkard et al. (1955) were impressed with the high prevalence of an unusual eating pattern, NES, displayed by obese adults referred to a special study clinic. Twenty of 25 patients awoke with little appetite, did not start to eat until later in the day, ate on through the evening, felt tense and upset, and had difficulty sleeping. This pattern was not found in a control sample of 38 normal weight graduate nurses. A questionnaire study of 100 consecutive obese persons in a nutrition clinic showed 12% with NES (Stunkard, 1959). Since then, NES has received little attention.

Although the elements of bulimia have appeared in case reports and theoretical discussions for many years, it was Russell (1979) who first ~~