Sodium oxybate in the treatment of binge eating disorder: an open-label, prospective study

To assess preliminarily the effectiveness of sodium oxybate in binge eating disorder.

This was an open-label, prospective, 16-week, flexible dose study of sodium oxybate in binge eating disorder. The primary outcome was binge eating episode frequency.

Twelve individuals received sodium oxybate, 10 completed at least one postbaseline evaluation, and five completed the study. Mean dose at endpoint was 7.1 (2.0) g/day. Sodium oxybate was associated with significant reductions in frequency of binge days and binge episodes, as well as measures of clinical severity, eating pathology, obsessive-compulsive symptoms, food cravings, body mass index, and body weight. Nine participants had remission of binge eating and five lost ≥5% of their baseline weight; all five of the latter participants had remission of binge eating.

In this open-label trial, sodium oxybate was effective in binge eating disorder, but associated with high a discontinuation rate.