Our nonalkalized cocoa mixture was associated with an acute decrease in food intake only after being supplemented with epicatechin. It is possible that epicatechin at a dose of >1.6 mg/kg body weight, alone or in concert with appropriate catalytic cocoa compounds, may be useful for helping people control their food intakes. This trial was registered at clinicaltrials.gov as NCT02408289.

Purpose To assess night eating syndrome (NES) in patients referred for polysomnography and its association with obstructive sleep apnea (OSA). We also assessed whether participants with OSA were more likely to get up and eat at night, and whether these behaviors were associated with the apnea-hypopnea sleep index (AHI). We additionally examined whether NES and OSA were associated with BMI, and assessed depressed mood among participants with NES or OSA. Methods The Night Eating Diagnostic Questionnaire (NEDQ), Zung Depression Scale, and demographic and medical questionnaires were used to evaluate 84 qualified participants. Polysomnography was used to assess AHI, and therefore OSA. Results Thirty individuals met full or sub-threshold NES (NES[St]) criteria, and 54 had no night eating (Normal). Eighty-nine percent of the sample had OSA with AHI ≥ 5. Neither AHI nor BMI differed between NES(St) and Normal, F(1,82)=1.67, p=.20 and F(1, 82)=2.2, p =.14, respectively. Participants with NES(St) were, however, more likely than Normal to have depressed mood (mild, moderately, or severely depressed), χ2=4.47 p=.03. There was a positive correlation between AHI and BMI, r=.37, p=.001. Those with OSA were not more likely to eat at night, F(1,82) = .04, p = .84, or get out of bed more often, F(1,13) = .23, p = .64, and there was no correlation between AHI and eating at night (r = −.11, p = .31). However, there was a positive correlation between AHI and the number of times participants got up out of bed (r = .81, p < .001). Conclusions We found that NES was not associated with BMI or AHI severity. The findings show that NES is primarily an eating disorder, rather than a sleep disorder, and that there is an association between NES and depressed mood.

Background: Psychosocial factors, identified in pre-bariatric surgery evaluation, may affect surgical outcomes, as well as defer surgery, making it important to identify psychosocial predictors of surgery outcomes.Methods: Baseline depressive and social anxiety symptom scores were analyzed as predictors of post-surgical weight loss (WL) and quality of life (QOL) following Roux-en-Y gastric bypass (RYGB) and adjustable gastric banding (AGB). Eighty-nine (82F, 7M) participants underwent surgery and completed depression, anxiety and QOL questionnaires 3-weeks pre-surgery and 1-year post-surgery.Results: Depressive scores and QOL scores improved post-surgery (P < 0.001), whereas social anxiety scores did not (P = 0.20). Baseline depressive (P = 0.90) and social anxiety (P = 0.20) scores did not predict % weight loss (WL) at 1 year, but higher baseline depressive (P = 0.04) and social anxiety (P = 0.005) scores predicted lower post-surgical QOL at 1 year. RYGB showed greater improvement in %WL (P < 0.001) than AGB, but no difference between the groups in QOL (P = 0.10). Improvement in QOL correlated with %WL (P < 0.001), whereas improvement in depressive scores did not correlate with %WL (P = 0.70) but did correlate with improvement in QOL (P = 0.01). Conclusions:Baseline depressive and social anxiety scores predicted QOL but not %WL. Depressive and QOL scores improved post-surgery, but social anxiety scores did not. The findings suggest that patients who present with depressive or social anxiety symptoms pre-surgery perhaps should not be deferred; however, more studies are needed to confirm this. Patients with pre-operative social anxiety symptoms may benefit from counseling.