October 24th 2022
Connections between autism risk, sleep disturbances, insomnia risk genes and circadian pathways were analyzed.
Sleep Disturbances After Traumatic Brain Injury
September 30th 2015Sleep-related problems are among the most disabling consequences of TBI, with multiple influences: impairment of neuronal plasticity, metabolomic alterations, loss of vascular homeostasis, and disruption of the blood-brain barrier. The authors take a close look.
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ADHD and Sleep Disorders in Children
June 13th 2012Sleep changes associated with psychotropic drugs are common enough to justify routinely obtaining a baseline sleep diary before beginning treatment, even when the initial screening for sleep disorders indicates that no further investigation is needed.
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Strategies to Improve Medication Adherence in Youths
March 27th 2012This discussion focuses on approaches to improve medication adherence, particularly in reference to helping adolescents remain on recommended psychopharmacological regimens when transitioning from acute to long-term maintenance.
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Inpatient Psychiatry: The Interpretation of Changing Scenery
March 17th 2012Recently our inpatient psychiatric unit moved into a brand new facility. In the months and weeks preceding “the move,” there was much preparation and nervous energy. We had been preparing our patients and ourselves for this day. “
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Autism is demanding increased attention by professional and lay audiences; prevalence seems to be increasing. There are differing opinions about whether the increase is due to greater recognition and reporting, diagnostic expansion and substitution, or increasing acceptability.
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Diagnosis and Treatment of Restless Legs Syndrome in Psychiatric Practice
September 8th 2009Restless legs syndrome (RLS) is a neurosensory disorder first described by Sir Thomas Willis in 1672. As early as the 19th century, Theodor Wittmaack observed the comorbidity of RLS with depression and anxiety. He termed this condition “anxietas tibiarum” and believed it to be a form of hysteria.
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Lyme Disease, Comorbid Tick-Borne Diseases, and Neuropsychiatric Disorders
December 1st 2007Many recall the phrase "To know syphilis is to know medicine." Now Lyme disease (Lyme borreliosis), the new "great imitator," is the ultimate challenge to the breadth and depth of our knowledge. In psychiatry, we generally treat mental symptoms or syndromes rather than the underlying cause of a disorder.
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The Science of Sleep. A quirky Indy motion picture by that title was in theaters last year. The plot concerned an odd but wildly creative and endearing fellow who ran into problems in his interpersonal relationships, in part, because he often couldn't distinguish between being awake and asleep. Wake and dream episodes mirrored each other, creating a penchant for the surreal and a personal narrative for the protagonist that wasn't quite in sync with that of the characters around him.
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Patients who experience seizure 24 hours after stroke onset may be at increased risk for death, according to Angela Rackley, MD, a clinical neurophysiology fellow in epilepsy, and coresearchers at the University of Cincinnati. Rackley presented an abstract on the incidence of seizures within 24 hours after acute stroke at the annual meeting of the American Epilepsy Society in San Diego this past December. She and colleagues found a higher 30- day mortality rate among patients who had a seizure within hours of stroke compared with patients who did not experience poststroke seizure.
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Recognition of Dopamine in Sleep-Wake Function May Improve PD Care
May 1st 2007aytime sleepiness is common in patients with parkinsonism but has little to do with the amount of sleep these patients get and everything to do with dopaminergic dysfunction, according to David B. Rye, MD, PhD, associate professor of neurology at Emory University in Atlanta. "The idea is that if I sleep a lot, I shouldn't be so sleepy the next day, and if I sleep little, I should be very sleepy. This is doesn't hold true for patients with Parkinson disease [PD]. The loss of dopamine disrupts that banking system, or the sleep-wake homeostat," he said during a presentation at the 9th annual meeting of the American Society for Experimental Therapeutics, which met March 8 to 10 in Washington, DC. Addressing dopa- minergic tone during sleep might help ameliorate daytime symptoms of parkinsonism in general.
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Broken Sleep May Be Natural Sleep
March 1st 2007Once again your patient, an accountant and tax specialist, is complaining about his sleep. More nights than not he awakens at about 2 am. An hour goes by, sometimes 2, before he returns to sleep. You've prescribed 4 different hypnotics. Each gave the same unsatisfactory result. For 2 weeks, your patient got the 8 hours of uninterrupted sleep he-and you-seek, but then the old pattern returned. Following your instructions, he avoids caffeine, doesn't exercise after 6 pm, and confines his activities in bed to sleep, but to no avail. You refer him to a sleep laboratory, and the results there are entirely consistent with what he's been telling you. In the sleep lab he falls asleep at 11 pm, awakens at 2:30 am, returns to sleep at 4 am, and awakens for good at 7:30 am. He does not have sleep apnea, restless legs syndrome, or depression.
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Cortisol and Seasonal Changes in Mood and Behavior
October 1st 2006The degree to which season changes affect mood, energy, sleep, appetite, food preference, or desire to socialize with others has been called "seasonality." Identification of a seasonal pattern can only be made if both the patient and physician actively look for it.
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