Difficulty recruiting appropriate participants

This is an 8-week randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, parallel, fixed-dose pilot clinical trial to test the effectiveness of melatonin treatment versus placebo on symptoms of Night Eating Syndrome (NES). The investigators will also look at the effect of melatonin treatment on weight, metabolic parameters and sleep parameters in individuals with NES.

Night Eating Syndrome (NES) is a unique disorder characterized by a delayed pattern of food intake in which recurrent episodes of food consumption occurs after the evening meal and/or during nocturnal awakenings. Diagnostic criteria for NES include: (1) recurrent episodes of night eating, as manifested by eating after awakening from sleep or by excessive food consumption following the evening meal, (2) awareness of those eating episodes, and (3) significant distress or impairment caused by the disorder. Exclusion criteria are binge-eating disorder or another mental disorder, as well as medical disorders or medications that might better explain the disordered eating pattern. NES is also more common among patients with insomnia, eating disorders, and other psychiatric disorders. 100 participants with night eating syndrome will be recruited from the general population. They will be randomized to either a commercially available rapid-release formulation of melatonin (5 mg) or matching placebo capsules, that will be administered once a day for a total of 8 weeks. Participants will attend a screening appointment, a baseline assessment and additional research assessment visits every other week for the 8 weeks.

Inclusion Criteria:

1. 18 - 65 years of age
2. English speaking
3. Meet DSM-V (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual - version 5) criteria for Night Eating Syndrome (NES)

Exclusion Criteria:

1. Unable to provide informed consent
2. Presence of alcohol/substance dependence
3. Presence of other eating disorders such as Binge Eating Disorder, Anorexia Nervosa.
4. Significant uncontrolled systemic illness (e.g. chronic renal failure, chronic liver disease, poorly controlled diabetes, poorly controlled congestive heart failure, chronic infectious disease, chronic autoimmune disease)
5. Women who are pregnant or breastfeeding
6. Allergy or hypersensitivity to melatonin

All de-identified data resulting from this award involving human subjects will be submitted to the NIMH Data Archive (NDA) - National Database for Clinical Trials Related to Mental Illness (NDCT) The Principal Investigator will work with NDA support staff to plan an appropriate data submission schedule and provide information on the steps for submission and sharing of data. Communication of this data sharing plan to appropriate research staff to ensure the timely submission of data. All human subject data provided will include an NDA Global Unique Identifier (GUID) and will not include personally identifiable information (PII). Analyzed data will be submitted no later than the time of publication. Even if a publication focuses on only part of an analyzed dataset, the entire analyzed dataset will be submitted when the first paper is published. All data made available for public use via NDA will be de-identified data.