The purpose of this study, was to identify the point prevalence of night eating syndrome (NES) in our psychiatric outpatient population.

subjects were recruited from psychiatric outpatient clinic at The Sisli Etfal Teaching and Research Hospital (n=384). Night Eating Syndrome Questionnaire was used as a screening tool.

304 patient were female (%79,2), 80 were male (%20,8). Mean age of patients were 37,5±13,7.

The mean weight of our population was 63,4±13,8; average BMI calculated 25,7±5,24 . %4,7 of patients were low weighted; %45,6 were normal wieghted; %32,6 were overweighted and %17,2 were obese.

Two hundred seven participants (%54) scored ≥20 on the night eating questionnaire. 168 of these were female, 39 were male; no significant differences were found between genders. No significant differences were found between total scores of Night Eating Questionnaire and BMI, weight, age and gender.

In our study we found point prevalence of NES %54. This high prevalance could be related with our sample features like higher female proportion and higher proportion of obese or overweighted patients. The prevalence of NES is estimated at 1,5% in general population, 6-% to 14% in obesity clinics and 8-42% in preoperative bariatric surgery patients in the US . Such a wide range of estimates is most certainly influenced by varying assessment methods and diagnostic criteria. Another limitation to be noted is related to the self-report nature of the data.