Controversies in the treatment of primary insomnia.
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Journal Article↗
Biomedical subjects
E Stepanski
Publications and source records attributed to E Stepanski.
Effects of sleep deprivation on daytime sleepiness in primary insomnia.
STUDY OBJECTIVES: This study investigated changes in MSLT scores and recovery sleep following total sleep deprivation in subjects with insomnia as compared to normal sleepers. DESIGN: Matched-groups design. SETTING: A sleep disorders center in a large medical center. PARTICIPANTS: Ten individuals with psychophysiological insomnia and ten age- and sex-matched normal sleepers served as subjects. INTERVENTIONS: Subjects underwent total sleep deprivation after baseline polysomnography and MSLT. A post-deprivation MSLT was obtained, as well as polysomnography on the recovery night and an MSLT after the recovery night. MEASUREMENTS AND RESULTS: Both groups showed significant decreases in MSLT scores following total sleep deprivation, as compared to baseline. Both groups had significantly shorter scores on a nighttime MSLT compared to a daytime MSLT. The insomnia group also showed a significant increase in total sleep time on the recovery night compared to baseline. CONCLUSIONS: The MSLT is sensitive to changes in sleepiness associated with total sleep deprivation in individuals with primary insomnia.
Adult↗
Sleep-disordered breathing in a predominantly African-American pediatric population.
The goal of this study was to characterize sleep and respiratory parameters in children with sleep-disordered breathing (SDB) as compared to children without SDB. Data are from 198 children and adolescents referred for sleep center evaluation, 128 of whom were diagnosed with SDB. In children with SDB, obesity (> 95% wgt for age) was more common than being severely underweight (< 5% wgt for age), but only the older children with SDB were heavier than age-matched normal sleepers. Children with SDB had increased EEG arousals; sleep architecture was not otherwise significantly different from the non-SDB group. African-American children with SDB had significantly greater oxygen desaturation with obstructive events compared to Caucasian and Latino children. It appears that the role of obesity as a risk factor for obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) increases in children above the age of 8-years. Additionally, African-American children with SDB may be at increased risk for hypoxemia and cardiovascular consequences of SDB.
Black People↗
Effects of diagnosis on treatment recommendations in chronic insomnia--a report from the APA/NIMH DSM-IV field trial.
The objective of this study was to determine whether sleep specialists and nonspecialists recommend different treatments for different insomnia diagnoses according to two different diagnostic classifications. Two hundred sixteen patients with chronic insomnia at five sites were each interviewed by two clinicians: one sleep specialist and one nonsleep specialist. All interviewers indicated diagnoses using the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, fourth edition (DSM-IV); sleep specialists also indicated diagnoses according to the International Classification for Sleep Disorders (ICSD). Interviewers then indicated how strongly they would recommend each item in a standard list of treatment and diagnostic interventions for each patient. We examined differences in treatment recommendations among the six most common DSM-IV diagnoses assigned by sleep specialists at different sites (n = 192), among the six most common ICSD diagnoses assigned by sleep specialists at different sites (n = 153), and among the six most common DSM-IV diagnoses assigned by nonspecialists at different sites (n = 186). In each analysis, specific treatment and polysomnography recommendations differed significantly for different diagnoses, using either DSM-IV or ICSD criteria. Conversely, different diagnoses were associated with different rank orderings of specific treatment and diagnostic recommendations. Sleep specialist and nonspecialist interviewers each distinguished treatment recommendations among different diagnoses, but in general, nonspecialists more strongly recommended medications and relaxation treatments. Significant site-related differences in treatment recommendations also emerged. Differences in treatment recommendations support the distinction between different DSM-IV and ICSD diagnoses, although they do not provide formal validation. Site-related differences suggest a lack of consensus in how these disorders are conceptualized and treated.
Adolescent↗
Neuropsychological function in obstructive sleep apnea syndrome (OSAS) compared to chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).
Forty-nine men, 25 with obstructive sleep apnea syndrome (OSAS) and 24 with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), were evaluated with a standard 8-hour nocturnal polysomnogram, multiple sleep latency test the following day and a neuropsychological test battery. The OSAS patients had more respiratory disturbances per hour of sleep, more stage 1 sleep and greater daytime sleepiness than COPD patients. The OSAS patients were as impaired as the COPD patients in neuropsychological test functioning, with the pattern of impairment nonspecific as to hypoxemic-sensitive versus sleepiness-sensitive tasks, with two exceptions. The OSAS patients performed more poorly on a test requiring sustained attention and considered sensitive to sleepiness, whereas the COPD patients performed more poorly on a test requiring motor skills and sensitive to hypoxemia. These deficits in psychomotor and attention appear to be specifically related to patients group (OSAS vs. COPD), but the other deficits found in complex reasoning and memory are nonspecific.
Attention↗
Sleep disorders in patients on continuous ambulatory peritoneal dialysis.
Sleep complaints, habits, and medical history were surveyed in 81 patients chronically receiving continuous ambulatory peritoneal dialysis. Seventy-three percent of the sample reported insomnia, and 52% reported unintentional napping during the day. Behavioral factors (such as caffeine or alcohol use) or the severity of concurrent medical disease did not account for the sleep problems. Eighteen of these patients subsequently underwent polysomnography and objective measurement of daytime sleepiness. Clinically significant sleep apnea syndrome was present in 11. The presence of sleep apnea was associated with increased levels of psychological distress and daytime sleepiness. Periodic leg movements during sleep were also frequently observed but had minimal effect on sleep quality. Implications of these findings for clinical practice are discussed.
Adult↗
Experimental sleep fragmentation.
Thirty-six healthy young men and women (age range 21-35 years) were studied in an experimental model of sleep fragmentation. On 2 nights sleep was disrupted by presenting tones to produce brief electroencephalogram (EEG) arousals (without shortening sleep time) and daytime function was assessed the following day with the Multiple Sleep Latency Test and a divided attention performance test. The fragmentation of sleep produced significant disruption of nocturnal sleep and reduced daytime alertness. Adaptation in EEG-defined arousals occurred from the 1st to the 2nd night of fragmentation. Threshold (measured indirectly) characteristics of EEG-defined arousals were somewhat different than those of previous studies requiring behavioral awakening. The percent of tone series producing arousal, number of tones necessary for arousal and duration of the arousal all reflected heightened thresholds in stage 3/4 and rapid eye movement (REM) sleep compared to stage 1 and stage 2 sleep. In the last 3 hours of sleep versus the first 3 hours, arousals occurred less frequently, required more tones to produce, resulted in shorter durations and in fewer sleep stage changes, except for REM sleep where the converse was the case.
Acoustic Stimulation↗
Clinical diagnoses in 216 insomnia patients using the International Classification of Sleep Disorders (ICSD), DSM-IV and ICD-10 categories: a report from the APA/NIMH DSM-IV Field Trial.
Three diagnostic classifications for sleep disorders have been developed recently: the International Classification of Sleep Disorders (ICSD), the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, 4th edition (DSM-IV), and the International Classification of Diseases, 10th edition (ICD-10). No data have yet been published regarding the frequency of specific diagnoses within these systems or how the diagnostic systems relate to each other. To address these issues, we examined clinical sleep disorder diagnoses (without polysomnography) in 257 patients (216 insomnia patients and 41 medical/psychiatric patients) evaluated at five sleep centers. A sleep specialist interviewed each patient and assigned clinical diagnoses using ICSD, DSM-IV and ICD-10 classifications. "Sleep disorder associated with mood disorder" was the most frequent ICSD primary diagnosis (32.3% of cases), followed by "Psychophysiological insomnia" (12.5% of cases). The most frequent DSM-IV primary diagnoses were "Insomnia related to another mental disorder" (44% of cases) and "Primary insomnia" (20.2% of cases), and the most frequent ICD-10 diagnoses were "Insomnia due to emotional causes" (61.9% of cases) and "Insomnia of organic origin" (8.9% of cases). When primary and secondary diagnoses were considered, insomnia related to psychiatric disorders was diagnosed in over 75% of patients. The more narrowly defined ICSD diagnoses nested logically within the broader DSM-IV and ICD-10 categories. We found substantial site-related differences in diagnostic patterns. These results confirm the importance of psychiatric and behavioral factors in clinicians' assessments of insomnia patients across all three diagnostic systems. ICSD and DSM-IV sleep disorder diagnoses have similar patterns of use by experienced clinicians.
Adolescent↗
Characteristics of individuals who do or do not seek treatment for chronic insomnia.
Survey data have shown that a minority of people who complain of insomnia receive medical treatment for this problem. Patients who seek treatment for insomnia at medical clinics and sleep disorders centers are a self-selected group who may not be representative of all individuals with insomnia. Fifty patients presenting to a sleep disorders center with an insomnia complaint were compared to 50 subjects with insomnia recruited through the newspaper for psychopharmacological studies. No differences in sleep parameters were found, but significant differences on psychometric measures and in daytime alertness were present. The implications of these differences are discussed.
Adult↗
Sleep and memory.
Generally sleep is considered a time of amnesia. It is not uncommon for an individual to experience 8 h of sleep and have no memory for events during that time. Similarly, a substantial proportion of the population has no memory for dreams that occurred during the night, despite the fact that the literature on awakening during rapid eye movement (REM) sleep clearly shows that individuals normally have four to six "dream experiences" a night. Research on this issue seems to indicate that the lack of memory cannot be explained by the organisms' inability to perceive stimuli. The data indicate that although perceptual thresholds are elevated, organisms can clearly perceive stimuli, and, in fact, can discriminate between them during sleep. The amnesia also cannot be explained by a defect in long-term memory, as studies have indicated that stimuli put into the memory during wakefulness are more efficiently retrieved after a sleep period than after a comparable period of wakefulness. The most likely explanation for the amnestic property of sleep seems to be the inability of organisms to transfer information from short-term memory to long-term memory during sleep. There are several sources of evidence to support this hypothesis. First, the probability of remembering a stimulus given during wakefulness is related to the proximity of sleep onset to the stimulus. Generally, information put into the system within 5 min of sleep onset is lost from memory. Secondly, disorders of excessive daytime somnolence which cause individuals to have frequent microsleeps are often associated with complains of memory problems.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Humans↗
Daytime alertness in patients with chronic insomnia compared with asymptomatic control subjects.
Despite the subjective reports of patients with difficulty initiating and maintaining sleep (DIMS) that they are impaired during the day, consistent differences in daytime functions have not been found between normal sleepers and patients with insomnia. The present study compares polysomnography and Multiple Sleep Latency Test (MSLT) data from 70 clinic patients seeking evaluation for chronic insomnia with data from a group of 45 asymptomatic sleepers. The DIMS group was found to sleep significantly less than the control group; yet they were also significantly more alert than the control group the following day, as measured by MSLT. Within the insomnia diagnostic subgroups, a correlation of -0.67 (p less than 0.05) was found between nocturnal total sleep time and mean MSLT. The results are interpreted as supporting the existence of a tendency towards physiological hyperarousal in patients with chronic insomnia. This tendency may be exacerbated by other factors (e.g., personality disorder, periodic leg movements) also associated with insomnia.
Adult↗
Experimental sleep fragmentation in normal subjects.
Recent research has suggested that sleep fragmentation in the absence of sleep loss is an important cause of excessive daytime sleepiness in certain clinical populations (e.g., sleep apnea syndrome or periodic leg movements). This study experimentally varied the number and rate of arousals in sleep to define more clearly the relation of sleep fragmentation and daytime sleepiness. Five male subjects participated in the study. Data from each were recorded for three consecutive nights (one baseline followed by two experimental nights) under three experimental conditions. All nocturnal polysomnograms were followed by a Multiple Sleep Latency Test (MSLT) the next day. The experimental conditions consisted of three different schedules of arousal produced by series of tones presented to subjects over headphones. The MSLT showed statistically significant changes after two nights of fragmented sleep, but the three fragmentation schedules did not differ from each other. Arousal threshold also changed significantly with sleep fragmentation from night one to night two.
Adolescent↗
Fragmenting sleep diminishes its recuperative value.
The recuperative effects of naps fragmented by different rates of electroencephalographic (EEG) arousal were evaluated. Forty healthy subjects with normal hearing and daytime sleep tendency (measured by the Multiple Sleep Latency Test at 10:00 a.m., 12:00 p.m., 2:00 p.m., and 4:00 p.m.) were randomly assigned to one of five conditions. Each was deprived of sleep for one night and then at 8:30 a.m. was given 100 min of natural sleep, sleep with arousals 1/5 min, 1/3 min, 1/1 min, or no sleep. After the recovery nap at 12:00 p.m., 2:00 p.m., 4:00 p.m., and 6:00 p.m., sleep latencies were again evaluated. Mean sleep latencies increased linearly as the rate of arousal during the recuperative nap decreased. Latency in the high-arousal condition was similar to no sleep and lower than natural sleep. The sleep latency of the low-arousal condition was similar to natural sleep and higher than no sleep, whereas latency in the medium arousal condition was intermediate to and differed from both natural sleep and no sleep. Although the natural sleep provided recuperation relative to no sleep or fragmented sleep, it did not restore daytime sleepiness to the screening level.
Adult↗
Sleep fragmentation and daytime sleepiness.
It has been noted that clinical populations complaining of excessive daytime sleepiness (EDS) frequently have disrupted or fragmented nocturnal sleep. The relation between sleep fragmentation and daytime sleepiness has not been systematically studied. This study was designed to use correlational techniques evaluating the relation between these variables in patients complaining of EDS, patients complaining of insomnia, and asymptomatic controls. The four groups studied included patients complaining of EDS with sleep apnea (n = 15) or with periodic leg movements (n = 15), patients complaining of insomnia (n = 15), and healthy volunteers with no sleep complaint (n = 10). One night of polysomnography followed by a Multiple Sleep Latency Test was obtained for each subject. Each recording was evaluated using standard criteria and also by a four-level arousal scoring system. Across all subjects, the total number of arousals correlated significantly with sleepiness index (r = 0.48, p less than 0.001). Closer analysis of the data shows that, depending upon the sleep complaint, different types of arousals are predictive of degree of daytime sleepiness. It is concluded that the number and type of nocturnal arousals play an important role in subsequent daytime sleepiness.
Adult↗
[Effects of the chronic administration of triazolam 0.50 mg on the sleep of insomniacs].
Several studies have been conducted in view to evaluate the short and medium-term efficacy of triazolam. The present investigation was aimed at assessing its long-term effectiveness. Four female and six male (average age: 29.9 years +/- 9.6) insomniacs took part in this study. After selection of the subjects, they are kept under observation in the sleep laboratory during two consecutive nights per week for ten weeks, during which they were given a placebo on weeks 1, 8, 9 and 10 and triazolam 0.50 mg on weeks 2 to 7. Triazolam proved to be an effective hypnotic during the six weeks of treatment, with no withdrawal effects upon discontinuation.
Adult↗
Effects of benzodiazepines on sleep and wakefulness.
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Anti-Anxiety Agents↗