Sleep-Related Eating Disorder and Zolpidem

To the Editor: Sleep-related eating disorder (SRED) is a newly recognized parasomnia that describes a clinical condition of compulsive eating under an altered level of consciousness during sleep. The prevalence rate varies from 4% to 16.7% among different clinical psychiatric populations. 1,2 The exact etiology of SRED is unclear, but it is postulated that SRED might share features of both sleepwalking and eating disorders. 3 In addition, there have been accumulating reports of SRED related to the use of various psychotropic medications including triazolam, zolpidem, olanzapine, risperidone, and combinations of psychotropics. [4] ][6] Our clinical epidemiologic study in psychiatric outpatients 2 showed that 1 out of 7 subjects regularly taking zolpidem could develop SRED in their lifetime. In addition, among a psychiatric population, most of the adult-onset sleepwalking cases were highly comorbid with SRED features. 9 Thus, there seems to be a robust association of zolpidem and SRED on the basis of both cross-sectional clinical series and epidemiologic evidence.