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Is nocturnal eating in restless legs syndrome linked to a specific psychopathological profile? A pilot study

  • Neurology and Preclinical Neurological Studies - Original Article
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Abstract

The purpose of the study was to evaluate psychological comorbidity in drug-naive or drug-free primary restless legs syndrome (p-RLS) patients with nocturnal eating disorder (NED), and to analyze the association of comorbid p-RLS and NED with obsessive-compulsive, mood and anxiety symptoms, and personality. Participants comprised 20 consecutive female outpatients with p-RLS, 10 without NED and 10 with NED, and 10 female controls matched for age. Both patients and controls were evaluated by the Hamilton Depression and the Anxiety Rating Scales, the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory, the Maudsley Obsessive Compulsive Inventory and the temperament and character inventory—revised. Compared to controls, p-RLS patients without and with NED had higher trait anxiety and current anxiety and obsessive-compulsive symptoms. p-RLS patients with NED also had significantly higher doubting compared to p-RLS patients without NED. Furthermore, groups differed for harm avoidance (HA), with p-RLS patients with and without NED having higher scores than controls. Untreated p-RLS patients, particularly those with nocturnal eating, report anxiety and obsessive-compulsive symptoms, perceive stressful situations as dangerous and threatening and tend to respond with anxiety to such situations. They have higher tendency to respond intensely to aversive stimuli, inhibiting behavior to avoid punishment, novelty, and frustrative omission of expected rewards. We hypothesize that higher levels of HA, a biologically determined personality trait, might constitute a diathesis predisposing individuals to display obsessive-compulsive symptoms, namely increasingly severe compulsive nocturnal eating.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biomedical and Neuromotor Sciences, University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy

    Sara Marconi, Giovanni Rizzo, Elena Antelmi & Federica Provini

  2. Community Mental Health Service, Department of Mental Health, Santa Maria della Scaletta Hospital, Imola, Italy

    Fabiano Scarlatti

  3. Department of Neurosciences, Mental Health and Sensory Organs, Suicide Prevention Center, Sant’Andrea Hospital, Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy

    Marco Innamorati, Maurizio Pompili & Roberto Brugnoli

  4. Department of Neurosciences, Rehabilitation, Ophthalmology, Genetics, Maternal and Child Health, Section of Psychiatry, University of Genoa, Genoa, Italy

    Martino Belvederi Murri & Mario Amore

  5. IRCCS Institute of Neurological Sciences of Bologna, Bellaria Hospital, Via Altura, 3, 40139, Bologna, Italy

    Federica Provini

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  1. Sara Marconi
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  2. Fabiano Scarlatti
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  9. Mario Amore
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  10. Federica Provini
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Correspondence to Federica Provini.

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All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

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Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

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Marconi, S., Scarlatti, F., Rizzo, G. et al. Is nocturnal eating in restless legs syndrome linked to a specific psychopathological profile? A pilot study. J Neural Transm 122, 1563–1571 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00702-015-1435-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00702-015-1435-z

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