Hostname: page-component-7c8c6479df-995ml Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-03-27T20:54:03.792Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Confusions Concerning Sleep Disorders and the Epilepsies in Children and Adolescents

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Gregory Stores*
Affiliation:
University Department of Psychiatry, Park Hospital for Children, Old Road, Headington, Oxford OX3 7LQ

Extract

There are interesting parallels between sleep disorders and the epilepsies. Firstly, both terms refer to a group of conditions differing in cause, clinical manifestation, natural history and impact on the lives of patients and their relatives. Secondly, the investigation and management of both sets of conditions require a combined physical and psychological approach. Thirdly, neither field is usually covered systematically (if at all) in medical education, although some initiative has been taken in the USA for the introduction of these areas into the curriculum of medical schools (Medical School Curriculum Task Force, 1988). This relative neglect no doubt explains the fourth parallel – that in both sleep disorders and the epilepsies misdiagnosis or inadequate diagnosis appears to be common.

Type
Annotation
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal College of Psychiatrists 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Anders, T. (1979) Night-waking in infants during the first years of life. Pediatrics, 63, 860864.Google Scholar
Association of Sleep Disorders Centers (1979) Diagnostic classification of sleep and arousal disorders. Sleep, 2, 1137.Google Scholar
Barros-Ferriera, M., Chodkiewicz, J-P, Lairy, G. C., et al (1975) Disorganized relations of tonic and phasic events of REM sleep in a case of brain-stem tumour. Electroencephalography and Clinical Neurophysiology, 38, 203207.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Blom, S. & Heijbel, J. (1982) Benign epilepsy of childhood with centro-temporal EEG foci: a follow-up study in adulthood of patients initially treated as children. Epilepsia, 23, 629632.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Broughton, R. (1968) Sleep disorders: disorders of arousal? Science, 159, 10701078.Google Scholar
Commission on Classification and Terminology of the International League Against Epilepsy (1981) Proposal for revised clinical and electroencephalographic classification of epileptic seizures. Epilepsia, 22, 489501.Google Scholar
Commission on Classification and Terminology of the International League Against Epilepsy (1989) Proposal for revised classification of epilepsies and epileptic syndromes. Epilepsia, 30, 389399.Google Scholar
Crowell, J. A. & Anders, T. F. (1985) Hypnogenic paroxysmal dystonia. Journal of the American Academy of Child Psychiatry, 24, 353358.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ferber, R. (1985) Sleep disorders in infants and children. In Clinical Aspects of Sleep and Sleep Disturbance (ed. T. L. Riley), pp. 113157. Boston: Butterworth.Google Scholar
Gastaut, H. (1970) Clinical and electroencephalographical classification of epileptic seizures. Epilepsia, 11, 102113.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Guilleminault, C., Billiard, M., Montplaisir, J., et al (1975a) Altered states of consciousness in disorders of daytime sleepiness. Journal of the Neurological Sciences, 26, 377393.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Guilleminault, C., Eldridge, F., Simmons, F. B., et al (1975b) Sleep apnoea in eight children. Pediatrics, 58, 2831.Google Scholar
Guilleminault, C. & Silvestri, R. (1982) Disorders of arousal and epilepsy during sleep. In Sleep and Epilepsy (eds M. B. Sterman, M. N. Shouse & P. Passouant), pp. 513531. New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Herman, J. H., Blaw, M. E. & Steinberg, J. B. (1989) REM behaviour disorder in a two year old male with evidence of brainstem pathology. Sleep Research, 18, 242.Google Scholar
Kales, A., Soldatos, C. R. & Kales, J. D. (1987) Sleep disorders: insomnia, sleepwalking, night terrors, nightmares, and enuresis. Annals of Internal Medicine, 106, 582592.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lancet, (1989) Airway obstruction during sleep in children. Lancet, ii, 10181019.Google Scholar
Lugaresi, E., Cirignotta, F. & Montagna, P. (1986) Nocturnal paroxysmal dystonia. Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry, 49, 375380.Google Scholar
Mahowald, M. W. & Schenck, C. H. (1989) REM sleep behaviour disorder. In Principles and Practice of Sleep Medicine (eds M. H. Kryger, T. Roth & W. C. Dement), pp. 389401. Philadelphia: Saunders.Google Scholar
Maselli, R. A., Rosenberg, R. S. & Spire, J-P. (1988) Episodic nocturnal wanderings in non-epileptic young patients. Sleep, 11, 156161.Google Scholar
Medical School Curriculum Task Force (1988) The medical school curriculum consensus workshop: consensus document. Sleep, 11, 566570.Google Scholar
Morehouse, R. L. (1989) Violence in sleep: a further diagnostic consideration (letter). British Journal of Psychiatry, 154, 729730.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Oswald, I. (1989) Episodic nocturnal wanderings (letter). Sleep, 12, 186187.Google Scholar
Oswald, I. & Evans, J. (1985) On serious violence during sleepwalking. British Journal of Psychiatry, 147, 688691.Google Scholar
Pedley, T. A. (1983) Differential diagnosis of episodic symptoms. Epilepsia, 24 (suppl. 1), 531544.Google Scholar
Pedley, T. A. & Guilleminault, C. (1977) Episodic nocturnal wanderings responsive to anticonvulsant drug therapy. Annals of Neurology, 2, 3035.Google Scholar
Rechtschaffen, A. & Kales, A. (1968) A Manual of Standardised Terminology, Techniques, and Scoring System for Sleep Stages of Human Subjects. Washington, DC: Public Health Service, US Government Printing Office.Google Scholar
Rose, S. W., Penry, J. K., Markush, R. E., et al (1973) Prevalence of epilepsy in children. Epilepsia, 14, 133152.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Roth, B., Nevsimalova, S. & Rechtschaffen, A. (1972) Hypersomnia with ‘sleep drunkenness’. Archives of General Psychiatry, 26, 456462.Google Scholar
Schenck, C. H., Scott, R., Bundlie, S. A., et al (1986) REM behaviour disorder in a 10 year old girl and aperiodic REM and NREM sleep movements in an 8 year old brother. Sleep Research, 15, 162.Google Scholar
Scott, A. I. F. (1988) Attempted strangulation during phenothiazine-induced sleep-walking and night terrors. British Journal of Psychiatry, 153, 692694.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Simonds, J. F. & Parraga, H. (1982) Prevalence of sleep disorders and sleep behaviors in children and adolescents. Journal of the American Academy of Child Psychiatry, 21, 383388.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Stores, G. (1981) Problems of learning and behaviour in children with epilepsy. In Epilepsy and Psychiatry (eds E. H. Reynolds & M. R. Trimble), pp. 3348. Edinburgh: Churchill Livingstone.Google Scholar
Stores, G. (1986) Nonconvulsive status epilepticus in children. In Recent Advances in Epilepsy I (eds T. A. Pedley & B. S. Meldrum), pp. 295310. Edinburgh: Churchill Livingstone.Google Scholar
Stores, G. & Bergel, N. (1989) Clinical utility of cassette EEG in childhood seizure disorders. In Ambulatory EEG Monitoring (ed. J. S. Ebersole), pp. 129139. New York: Raven Press.Google Scholar
Stores, G. & Zaiwalla, Z. (1989) Misdiagnosis of frontal lobe complex partial seizures in children. In Advances in Epileptology, XVIIth Epilepsy International Symposium (eds J. Manelis, E. Bental, J. N. Loeber, et al), pp. 288290. New York: Raven Press.Google Scholar
Tassinari, C. A., Mancia, D., Bernadina, B. D., et al (1972) Pavor nocturnus of non-epileptic nature in epileptic children. Electroencephalography and Clinical Neurophysiology, 33, 603607.Google Scholar
Tinuper, P., Cerullo, A., Cirignotta, F., et al (1990) Nocturnal paroxysmal dystonia with short-lasting attacks: three cases with evidence for an epileptic frontal lobe origin of seizures. Epilepsia, 31, 549556.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Treiman, D. M. & Delgado-Escueta, A. V. (1983) Violence and epilepsy: a critical review. In Recent Advances in Epilepsy I (eds T. A. Pedley & B. S. Meldrum), pp. 179209. Edinburgh: Churchill Livingstone.Google Scholar
Viani, F., Behgi, E., Atza, M. G., et al (1988) Classifications of epileptic syndromes: advantages and limitations for evaluation of childhood epileptic syndromes in clinical practice. Epilepsia, 29, 440445.Google Scholar
Williamson, P. D. & Spencer, S. S. (1986) Clinical and EEG features of complex partial seizures of extratemporal origin. Epilepsia, 27 (suppl. 2), 546563.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Zaiwalla, Z. (1989) Sleep abnormalities in children with epilepsy (abstract). Electroencephalography and Clinical Neurophysiology, 72, 29P.Google Scholar
Submit a response

eLetters

No eLetters have been published for this article.