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Objective: To investigate the impact of current mental disorders on weight loss with special consideration of depressive and/or anxiety disorders as well as binge eating behavior in obese individuals undergoing different weight loss treatments. Methods: Three different samples of obese individuals were investigated in a prospective, longitudinal study: participants in a conventional weight loss treatment program (CONV TREAT; n = 250), obesity surgery patients (OBES SURG; n = 153), and obese control individuals (OC; n = 128). Current mental disorders and BMI were assessed at baseline and at 4-year follow-up. Results: OBES SURG patients with a depressive and/or anxiety disorder lost significantly less weight compared with those without a comorbid mental diagnosis. This result was not detected for CONV TREAT participants. A trend to gain weight was seen in OC participants with a depressive and/or anxiety disorder, whereas OC participants without current mental disorders at baseline lost some weight. Binge eating behavior at baseline did not predict weight loss at 4-year followup. Conclusions: These results underline the importance of addressing current depressive and anxiety disorders in obese patients, especially when such patients are undergoing obesity surgery.

The results of the present study suggest that the German IWQOL-Lite is a psychometrically validated instrument with which to measure weight-specific health related quality of life.

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Compulsive buying is an excessive behavior that has begun to receive attention from researchers in recent years. The current study provides an overview of research on compulsive buying and examines the psychiatric co-morbidity in a German female treatment seeking compulsive buying sample in comparison with age and gender-matched normal buying control groups. Thirty women suffering from compulsive buying disorder, 30 community controls, and 30 bariatric surgery candidates were assessed with the German versions of the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV diagnoses (SCID). Women with compulsive buying disorder showed significantly higher prevalence rates of affective, anxiety, and eating disorders compared to community controls, and suffered significantly more often from affective and anxiety disorders compared to bariatric surgery candidates. The compulsive buying group presented with the highest rates of personality disorders, most commonly avoidant, depressive, obsessive-compulsive, and borderline personality disorder, and reported the highest prevalence rates of other impulse control disorders, especially for intermittent explosive disorder. The findings suggest an elevated psychiatric co-morbidity in patients with compulsive buying disorder.

The aim of the study was to explore the nature and extent of the association between night eating, other forms of disordered eating and obstructive sleep apnea (OSAS).Eighty-one participants (20 women and 61 men), mean age 53.7 years diagnosed with OSAS were assessed prior to starting treatment. Using a cut-off of > or =25 on the Night Eating Questionnaire (NEQ), 8.6% of the participants screened positive for night eating syndrome (NES). In addition, 7.5% met criteria for a daytime eating disorder. NES was significantly associated with diagnoses of depression, anxiety and eating disorders and was significantly correlated with an impairment of mental quality of life. No associations were found between NES and gender, BMI and the severity of the OSAS. NES does not appear to be closely linked to OSAS; however, in patients with OSAS and NES a significant co-morbidity with psychiatric disorders can be expected which might require additional treatment.

In the first description of the night eating syndrome (NES) 1955 by Stunkard et al. the criteria included (1) consumption of at least 25% of the total calories for the day after the evening meal, (2) sleeplessness, at least until midnight more than one half of the time and (3) morning anorexia with negligible food intake at breakfast. Further studies altered these criteria step by step, without ever relating to the changes already made by other authors. So today our knowledge about NES and its related features is based on an amazing variety of constructs merely referred to by the same term. However, there seems to be an agreement about a higher prevalence of the NES in overweight and obese treatment seeking samples. The relationship between NES, body weight and a possible influence of NES on overweight and obesity remains unclear and needs to be further examined. In addition to the research activities regarding NES as a possible eating disorder, sleep disorder specialists showed a growing interest in patients with sleeplessness and nocturnal eating episodes. New definitions were developed: the "night eating/drinking syndrome" (synonymous: NES), a disorder occurring mainly in infancy and early childhood but also seen in adults. Today the less restrictive concept "sleep related eating disorder" (SRED) eliminated the NES-concept, but also states a sleep disorder that is not clearly distinguishable from NES described by several authors as a possible eating disorder. In psychosomatic research the criteria of nocturnal eating (recurrent awakenings & getting up to eat) was included in the NES by a growing number of authors in the last 15 years. Based on this diversity of diagnostic criteria in two different fields of expertise a lot of research was done do investigate the prevalence of NES and further describe patients with NES. Today a meaningful summary of these findings is not possible and despite a growing number of research in NES and obesity the clinical relevance of the concept NES remains unclear. In this article diagnostic criteria so far will be summarized and a rough differentiation of NES to related constructs and disorders will be given.