Sleep disorders diagnosis

Kupfer DJ, Eoster EG EEG sleep and depression, in Sleep Disorders Diagnosis and Treatment. Edited by Williams RL, Karacan 1. New York, Wiley, 1978, pp 163-204... 

Poceta JS, Mitler MM, eds. Sleep Disorders Diagnosis and Treatment. Totowa, NJ Humana Press, 1998. 

Measurement of muscle activity, usually measured by electrodes placed on the skin. The EMG is used in sleep research to aid in the discrimination of sleep stages, and also as part of diagnosis of sleep disorders such as periodic limb movements and restless legs syndrome. 

Investigation and diagnosis of sleep disorders, especially sleep apnea and narcolepsy... 

The diagnosis is not made if hypersomnia occurs only during the course of a circadian-rhythm sleep disorder. 

Ancolli-Israel S, Ayalon L Diagnosis and treatment of sleep disorders in older adults. Am J Geriatr Psychiatry 2006 14 95. 

Other (less specific) scales have also been used as part of the evaluation of EDS. The basic Nordic Sleep Questionnaire (24) is a quantitative measure of subjective sleep complaints not limited to sleepiness. It focuses on events that happen (during sleep or wakefulness), and grades them on a five-point scale from 1 (never) to 5 (almost every day/night). Thus it is best suited for events but not for sleepiness as such. The Sleep Disorders Questionnaire (SDQ) (25) was extracted from another comprehensive questionnaire, the Sleep Questionnaire and Assessment of Wakefulness (SQAW) of Stanford, but is more geared for the diagnosis of specific sleep disorders (e.g., sleep apnea, narcolepsy) than for the evaluation and quantification of EDS. 

Abnormal sleep-onset REM periods, which occur within 15 min of sleep onset, are of major importance in the diagnosis of narcolepsy. Other causes of sleep-onset REM periods, such as sleep deprivation or other sleep disorders (e.g., obstructive sleep apnea), must be excluded (28). 

V. Diagnosis and Treatment of Sleep Disorders in Pregnancy and Postpartum... 

Individuals with sleep disorders have great impairment in the quality of their life [9, 12, 29], Furthermore, another important aspect related to the high prevalence of insomnia is its economic cost for the health care services. This not only includes the direct costs of diagnosis and treatment (including also the over-the-counter drugs, and the cost of the associated alcoholism), but in addition the substantial indirect costs related to absenteeism, diminished productivity, accidents, and other health problems that are secondary to insomnia [30-32],... 

Fig. 1. Schematized hypnogram demonstrating most of the sleep disorders described in the literature using laboratory recordings of untreated persons with schizophrenia. One category of sleep disorders in schizophrenia is the insomnia type , with long sleep latency, numerous and/or long awakenings, and short sleep duration. Another type of sleep disorders is more concerned with sleep organization, e.g.., short duration of SWS and/or short latency to the onset of REM sleep. Not all disorders are found in every study since variables such as symptoms or diagnosis subtype, severity and chronicity may influence the results (see text). REMS, REM sleep. A REM sleep period is defined as a succession of REM sleep epochs not interrupted for more than 15 min.

To ensure proper diagnosis and treatment of insomnia, and to rule out other primary sleep disorders, a physician should obtain a thorough sleep, medical and psychiatric... 

Effective diagnosis and treatment of disturbances of the sleep/wake cycle in AD patients has the potential to reduce or eliminate the distress caused by these disturbances, and as a result delay the need for institutionalization that commonly results from these sleep disturbances. While many AD patients develop significant sleep/wake cycle disturbances, treatment research for these problems has been severely hampered. There is little research to determine which AD patients are at greatest risk for sleep disruption, or even whether significant sleep disruptions make AD symptoms, such as cognitive impairment, more severe. As described below in more detail, there has also very little research into effective treatments for sleep disorders in this population. 

Caffeine intoxication is the only official diagnosis associated with caffeinism in the DSM-IV-TR. Caffeine-induced anxiety may manifest as restlessness, nervousness, excitement, insomnia, diuresis, flushing, gastrointestinal disturbance, muscle twitching, irritability, and jitteriness. If caffeine-induced insomnia requires specific treatment, caffeine-induced sleep disorder (DSM-IV-TR) is an appropriate diagnosis." ... 

Although the etiology of autism is not understood, the defining or core symptoms of autistic disorder are considered to be impaired social interaction, impaired verbal and nonverbal communication, and restrictive, repetitive patterns of behavior. In addition, most patients with a primary diagnosis of autism exhibit other neurological or psychiatric symptoms, which may include seizures, sleep disorders, anxiety, panic attacks, attention deficit/hyperactivity, self-injury, and cognitive impairment (Simonoff et ah, 2008). It is not known to what extent these comorbidities reflect the primary pathology of autism and to what extent they represent unrelated vulnerabilities that are exacerbated by the impaired social interaction and communication that is characteristic of the disorder. 

Somnology is the science behind much of sleep medicine. Sleep medicine involves the diagnosis and treatment of sleeping disorders, disturbances, and problems. In sleep laboratories, neurological and biophysical data are recorded, collected, assessed, and interpreted with the help of polysomnography. 

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