Comparison of clinical features between primary and secondary sleep-related eating syndrome

Abstract

Introduction Sleep-related eating disorder (SRED) is a condition with recurrent episodes of involuntary eating and drinking during arousal from sleep resulting in problematic consequences. SRED is a syndrome in which pathophysiological features seem to be heterogeneous. The aim of this study is to ascertain the similarity and difference in the clinical characteristics between primary SRED and secondary SRED induced by medication of hypnotics or DSPT. Materials and methods This study was approved by the ethics committee of the Neuropsychiatric Research Institute. Eligible cases comprised a series of 52 consecutive patients with SRED, who visited outpatient clinic of the Japan Somnology Center. We retrospectively investigated demographics, and descriptive informations. The patients were classified into three types; primary SRED (n = 32), secondary SRED induced by DSPT (n = 10), and secondary SRED induced by hypnotics medication (n = 10). Results The demographic of the total 52 individuals diagnosed with SRED in our sample are as follows: the female ratio was 67.3%, mean age of onset of the symptoms 29.0 Materials and methods Primary SRED shows features as parasomnia, i.e. high ratio of history of sleepwalking during childhood, episode occurred at first half of sleep. Among secondary SRED induced by DSPT, time zone in which the episodes mainly occurred delayed. Among secondary SRED induced by hypnotics medication, onset age was older, and episode with total unconsciousness was high. In light of our results, we suggest there are different clinical features between primary and secondary SRED. Acknowledgement This study was supported by a Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology grant, Japan.