[Nocturnal sleep-related eating disorder that responds to topiramate]

Nocturnal sleep-related eating disorder is a non-REM sleep parasomnia that is associated to other sleep disorders, especially sleepwalking. It becomes chronic, is not remitting and consists in episodes of compulsive eating during the night, which are then partially or completely forgotten by the patient. This condition must be differentiated from night-eating syndrome, which is far more common and is linked to endocrinological and psychiatric disorders, as well as to other disorders involving eating behaviour during sleeping hours.

A 28-year-old male who had suffered from the clinical picture every day for 10 years; this condition consisted in nocturnal episodes of binge eating in a state of semi-sleepiness, with no remembrance of what had happened the next morning. The patient had no history of psychiatric pathologies or any other eating disorder, but he did not rest adequately at night, was overweight and had a family and personal history of other sleep disorders. Since he did not respond to other treatments, we decided to try therapy with topiramate; as a result, the episodes disappeared, tolerance was excellent and effectiveness was maintained throughout the two years' follow-up.

In this paper we review eating disorders that occur during sleep, nocturnal sleep-related eating disorder and its therapeutic possibilities, while highlighting the usefulness of topiramate to treat this condition.