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Objective To propose criteria for diagnosis of the night eating syndrome (NES). Method An international research meeting was held in April 2008, and consensus criteria for NES diagnosis were determined. Results The core criterion is an abnormally increased food intake in the evening and nighttime, manifested by (1) consumption of at least 25% of intake after the evening meal, and/or (2) nocturnal awakenings with ingestions at least twice per week. Awareness of the eating episodes is required, as is distress or impairment in functioning. Three of five modifiers must also be endorsed. These criteria must be met for a minimum duration of 3 months. Discussion These criteria help standardize the definition of NES. Additional aspects of the nosology of NES yet to be fully elaborated include its relationship to other eating and sleep disorders. Assessment and analytic tools are needed to assess these new criteria more accurately.

Debate continues regarding the nosological status of binge eating disorder (BED) as a diagnosis as opposed to simply reflecting a useful marker for psychopathology. Contention also exists regarding the specific criteria for the BED diagnosis, including whether, like anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa, it should be characterized by overvaluation of shape/weight. The authors compared features of eating disorders, psychological distress, and weight among overweight BED participants who overvalue their shape/weight (n = 92), BED participants with subclinical levels of overvaluation (n = 73), and participants in an overweight comparison group without BED (n = 45). BED participants categorized with clinical overvaluation reported greater eating-related psychopathology and depression levels than those with subclinical overvaluation. Both BED groups reported greater overall eating pathology and depression levels than the overweight comparison group. Group differences existed despite similar levels of overweight across the 3 groups, as well as when controlling for group differences in depression levels. These findings provide further support for the research diagnostic construct and make a case for the importance of shape/weight overvaluation as a diagnostic specifier. Keywordsovervaluation; binge eating disorder; obesity; body image; diagnosis Binge eating disorder (BED), a research category in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (4th ed.; DSM-IV; American Psychiatric Association, 1994), is characterized by recurrent binge eating without extreme compensatory weight-control behaviors. The BED research diagnosis is more common than the two formal eating disorder et al., 2006) that is associated with heightened psychiatric comorbidity, psychosocial impairment, and medical problems (Hudson et al., 2007) and is a distinct familial phenotype in obese persons (Hudson et al., 2006).As we move toward the development of the DSM-V (Brown & Barlow, 2005), a pressing question regarding the BED research diagnosis is whether revisions or additions to its criteria would improve the construct (Masheb & Grilo, 2000. Included in the DSM-IV criteria for AN and BN, but not for BED, is the presence of overvaluation of shape and weight, or the "undue influence of body weight or shape on self-evaluation" (American Psychiatric Association, 1994, p. 545). Although patients with BED appear to have similar levels of overvaluation of shape and weight as those with BN and AN (Wilfley, Schwartz, Spurrell, & Fairburn, 2000), little empirical attention has been given to the potential utility of such a body-image related cognitive criterion or specifier for this research diagnostic construct.Two recent studies have specifically examined the significance of shape/weight overvaluation in BED. Hrabosky, Masheb, White, and Grilo (2007) assessed 399 patients with BED using the investigator-based Eating Disorder Examination (EDE; Fairburn & Cooper, 1993) and found that overvaluation significantly predicted degree of eating-...

A preconception weight loss intervention eliminates the adverse metabolic oral contraceptive effects and, compared with oral contraceptive pretreatment, leads to higher ovulation rates.