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April 10, 2008Link between Sleep Disorder, Behavior Issues in Kids |
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From EurekAlert! - Breaking News: A new study by researchers at Hasbro Children's Hospital offers a closer look at the association between childhood sleep-disordered breathing (SDB), including snoring and sleep apnea, and behavioral problems like hyperactivity and anxiety. Published in the April issue of the Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine, the study revealed that children with SDB who are also overweight, sleep for short periods of time, or have another sleep disorder like insomnia are more likely to have behavior issues. "It's important for clinicians to consider the contributions of these risk factors when screening, triaging, evaluating and designing treatments for children with SDB, particularly since they can help identify those patients who are in need of aggressive interventions and close follow-up," says lead author Judith A. Owens, M.D., M.P.H., director of the pediatric sleep disorders clinic at Hasbro Children's Hospital and an associate professor of medicine at The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University. Owens and colleagues analyzed the charts of more than 230 children and adolescents between the ages of 3 and 18 years with SDB symptoms who were referred for sleep testing. Somewhat surprisingly, the strongest predictor of adverse behavioral outcomes and CBCL scores was the presence of at least one additional sleep diagnosis, especially insomnia -- not the measure of SDB disease severity, which researchers thought would play a more significant role. Study co-authors were Robyn Mehlenbeck, Ph.D., of Hasbro Children's Hospital, Bradley Hasbro Children's Research Center and Alpert Medical School; Juhee Lee, B.A., of Hasbro Children's Hospital; and Melissa King, M.D., of Wickford Hall Medical Center, Lackland Air Force Base, Texas.
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