Department of Biotechnological and Applied Clinical Sciences, University of L'Aquila, Italy.
Department of Biotechnological and Applied Clinical Sciences, University of L'Aquila, Italy - Department of Psychiatric Sciences and Psychological Medicine, Sapienza University of Rome, Italy.
Riv Psichiatr. 2020 Jan-Feb;55(1):47-52. doi: 10.1708/3301.32719.
The aim of this research was to assess the prevalence of Night Eating Syndrome (NES) in a university student population and to clear up the relationship between NES, depression and chronotype. The relation between NES and seasonality was also investigated.
The data were collected from a sample of 1136 students of the L'Aquila University, Italy. All subjects were invited to answer to the Sociodemographic Information Form and to take a self-report battery composed by four questionnaires: the Night Eating Questionnaire (NEQ), the Morningness Eveningness Questionnaire (MEQ), the Seasonal Pattern Assessment Questionnaire (SPAQ) and the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI).
The 5.3% of our population (60 subjects) reached the criteria for NES. The distribution of chronotypes in the sample was: Morning Type 15.3%, Intermediate 64.3% and Evening Type 20.4%. The 36.7% of the participants reaching the criteria for NES, obtained low scores on the MEQ. The data indicated that NEQ and MEQ scores are significantly inversely correlated (r=-.22; p<.01, two-tailed test). The 3.6% of our population (41 subjects) reached the criteria for Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) and 10.7% for subclinical SAD (121 subjects). Furthermore, the 11.7% of subjects with NES presented SAD and the 5% presented Subclinical SAD. The data demonstrated that NES and Global Seasonality Score (GSS) are significantly associated (r=.22; p<0.01, two-tailed test).
The main finding of this study is the strong relation between NES and eveningness dimension. Our results help to clear up the literature debate about the role of eveningness dimension in the night eating, suggesting that subjects with NES present a circadian delay, not only in the food intake, but in the entire functioning. At the best of one knowledge this study is the first one to examine the relationship between NES and seasonality. This research found preliminary evidence that, similarly to the findings of previous studies in subjects with Bulimia Nervosa (BN) and Binge Eating Disorder (BED), night eating symptoms may vary significantly across the seasons; subjects with NES experience seasonal variation in their mood and in their eating patterns.
本研究旨在评估大学生群体中夜间进食综合征（NES）的患病率，并阐明 NES 与抑郁和昼夜节律之间的关系。还研究了 NES 与季节性之间的关系。
数据来自意大利拉奎拉大学的 1136 名学生样本。邀请所有受试者回答社会人口信息表，并填写由四个问卷组成的自我报告量表：夜间进食问卷（NEQ）、早晨/傍晚问卷（MEQ）、季节性模式评估问卷（SPAQ）和贝克抑郁量表（BDI）。
我们的人群中有 5.3%（60 人）达到了 NES 的标准。样本中的昼夜节律分布为：早型 15.3%、中间型 64.3%和晚型 20.4%。达到 NES 标准的 36.7%的参与者在 MEQ 上得分较低。数据表明，NEQ 和 MEQ 得分呈显著负相关（r=-.22；p<.01，双侧检验）。我们的人群中有 3.6%（41 人）达到了季节性情感障碍（SAD）的标准，10.7%（121 人）达到了亚临床 SAD 的标准。此外，11.7%的 NES 患者出现 SAD，5%的患者出现亚临床 SAD。数据表明，NES 和全球季节性评分（GSS）显著相关（r=.22；p<0.01，双侧检验）。
本研究的主要发现是 NES 与傍晚维度之间的密切关系。我们的结果有助于澄清文献中关于傍晚维度在夜间进食中的作用的争论，表明 NES 患者存在昼夜节律延迟，不仅在进食方面，而且在整个功能方面。据我们所知，这是首次研究 NES 与季节性之间的关系。本研究初步发现，与之前在神经性贪食症（BN）和暴食障碍（BED）患者中进行的研究结果相似，夜间进食症状可能会随季节发生显著变化；NES 患者的情绪和饮食模式会随季节变化。
