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Sleep disturbances in child and adolescent psychiatric disorders
1Department of Psychiatry, School of Medicine, University of Pittsburgh, Pa.
Insights
Child and adolescent sleep disturbances are linked to psychopathology, but objective studies show no clear disruptions. Future research should explore sleep regulation in relation to affect, arousal, and behavior disorders.
Area of Science:
- Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
- Sleep Medicine
- Developmental Psychology
Background:
- Sleep disturbances are frequently observed in children and adolescents with psychopathology.
- Significant clinical and research interest exists in the relationship between sleep and disorders such as major depressive disorder, attention deficit disorder, and Tourette's syndrome.
Purpose of the Study:
- To review the current understanding of sleep disturbances in child and adolescent psychopathology.
- To identify the challenges and potential future directions in studying objective sleep disruption in this population.
Main Methods:
- Review of existing literature on subjective and objective sleep studies in pediatric psychopathology.
- Analysis of potential reasons for discrepancies between subjective reports and objective findings.
Main Results:
- Subjective reports indicate sleep disturbances in pediatric psychopathology.
- Objective physiological sleep studies have largely failed to provide clear, clinically useful evidence of specific sleep disruption.
- Technical limitations in sleep measurement or maturational protective factors may obscure objective findings.
Conclusions:
- The link between sleep regulation and disorders of affect, arousal, and behavior in children and adolescents is a promising area for future research.
- Further investigation is needed to reconcile subjective sleep complaints with objective physiological data.
Abstract:
Symptoms of sleep disturbances are commonly associated with child and adolescent psychopathology. There has been considerable interest (both clinical and research) in sleep in relation to major depressive disorder, attention deficit disorder, and Tourette's syndrome. Despite evidence of subjective sleep disturbances, objective physiological studies (for the most part) have not produced clear, specific evidence of sleep disruption which is of clinical benefit at this time. The reasons for this may be due to the technical limitations of measuring sleep which may be unable to reliably detect subtle differences or may be due to maturational factors which protect the sleep of children and mask these findings. The interaction between the regulation of sleep and clinical disorders of affect, arousal, and behavior in children and adolescents appears to be a promising field for future research.