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REM Sleep Behavior Disorder among Veterans with and without Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder
EunYoung Lee1, Kiwon Kim1, Hyung Seok So1
1Department of Psychiatry, Veteran Health Service Medical Center, Seoul, Republic of Korea.
Objective:
Among veterans, the prevalence of rapid eye movement sleep behavior disorder (RBD) is higher than among the general population, and some evidence suggests that this is related to post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The purpose of this study was to determine whether the frequency of RBD differs depending on the presence of PTSD or trauma.
Methods:
Patients who underwent nocturnal polysomnography (PSG) and sleep-related questionnaire surveys at the Veteran Health Service Medical Center were reviewed retrospectively. Based on patients with PTSD (n=20; 100% male; 67.9±8.5 years of age), we matched patients exposed to trauma without PTSD (n23; 100% male; age 64.0±13.4) and patients without trauma (n=21; 100% male; age 59.86±10.9).
Results:
PTSD patients reported dream enactment behavior more than the trauma-exposed group without PTSD or the control group (p=0.006). After adjusting for age, there were more RBD patients in the PTSD group than in the trauma exposed group (p=0.049).
Conclusion:
The results showed that RBD occurred significantly more in veterans with PTSD than those exposed to trauma, which suggests that there may be a pathophysiological association between PTSD and RBD.
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