Should night eating syndrome be included in the DSM?
OBJECTIVE
This article examines the status of the literature on night-eating syndrome (NES) according to five criteria that have been proposed by Blashfield, Sprock, and Fuller(1) (Compr Psychiatry 1990; 31:15-19) to determine whether NES warrants inclusion in the psychiatric nosology as a distinct eating disorder.


METHODS
Relevant research papers were identified in Medline and PsychInfo using the search term "night-eating syndrome."


RESULTS
None of the five criteria was met. Specifically, at the time of review, there were not yet 25 empirical papers on NES; no commonly accepted definition of or assessment approach to NES has been adopted; the utility and validity of NES need to be established, and NES needs to be differentiated more clearly from other eating disorder syndromes.


CONCLUSIONS
This review suggests that the most pressing step toward clarifying the status of NES is to develop a uniform definition of NES. Once accomplished, research can progress to accumulating the necessary evidence to determine whether NES should be included in the fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.
Striegel-Moore
Ruth H
RH
Department of Psychology, Wesleyan University, 207 High Street, Middletown, CT 06459, USA. rstriegel@wesleyan.edu
Franko
Debra L
DL
May
Alexis
A
Ach
Emily
E
Thompson
Douglas
D
Hook
Julie M
JM
D002940:Circadian Rhythm; D039721:Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders; D001068:Feeding and Eating Disorders / Q000145:classification / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology; D006801:Humans; D019964:Mood Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology; D012893:Sleep Wake Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology