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The Wisdom of Psychopaths
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People with depression or other mental illnesses often report trouble sleeping, daytime drowsiness and other sleep-related issues. Now a growing body of research is showing that treating sleep problems can dramatically improve psychiatric symptoms in many patients.
Much of the latest work illustrates how sleep apnea, a common chronic condition in which a person repeatedly stops breathing during sleep, may cause or aggravate psychiatric symptoms. In past years sleep apnea has been linked to depression in small studies and limited populations. Now a study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention strengthens that connection. The CDC analyzed the medical records of nearly 10,000 American adults with sleep apnea. Men diagnosed with this disorder had twice the risk of depression—and women five times the risk—compared with those without sleep apnea. Writing in the April issue of Sleep, lead author Anne G. Wheaton and her colleagues speculate that in addition to interrupting sleep, the oxygen deprivation induced by sleep apnea could harm cells and disrupt normal brain functioning.
Treating this disorder shows promise for reducing symptoms of depression, a recent study at the Cleveland Clinic suggests. In the experiment, patients went to bed wearing a mask hooked up to a machine that increases air pressure in their throat. The increased pressure prevents the airway from collapsing, which is what causes breathing to cease in most cases of this disorder. Using this machine, psychiatrist Charles Bae and his colleagues treated 779 patients who had been diagnosed with sleep apnea. After an average of 90 days of sleeping with the machine, all the patients scored lower on a common depression survey than before the treatment—regardless of whether they had a prior diagnosis of depression or were taking an antidepressant. The data were presented in June at the SLEEP 2012 conference in Boston.
Investigating their patients' sleep health might allow doctors to alleviate mental disturbances early—perhaps even before patients try psychiatric drugs. This treatment could be especially important for children, according to three new studies that show sleep is associated with mental disturbance at young ages. An August study in Medical Hypotheses reported that about 25 to 50 percent of children and adolescents with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder experience sleep problems. A few months earlier in the journal Pediatrics, researchers found that of the 11,000 children in the study, those with disordered breathing in sleep (as reported by their parents) had 40 percent more behavioral difficulties at four years old and 60 percent more at age seven. Sleep disturbances affect moods, too—and not simply by producing crankiness. Adolescents who reported daytime drowsiness were also more likely to experience sadness, according to a March study in the Journal of Mental Health Policy and Economics.
Steven Y. Park, assistant professor of otolaryngology at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, has long been advocating that sleep disorders are an underlying cause of many psychiatric disorders. “The way I see it,” Park says, “you can't consider a psychiatric disorder without thinking about a sleep-breathing problem.”
This article was originally published with the title Treating Sleep Improves Psychiatric Symptoms.
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11 Comments
Add CommentSleep is strongly linked with all types of problems in living beings. Good sleep leads to good physical, mental and spiritual health. Any problem can be treated treating sleep problem. Have sound sleep and enjoy every thing.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisS. N. Tiwary
Director, ex-
Dean, Vice-Chancellor
"Investigating their patients' sleep health might allow doctors to alleviate mental disturbances early—perhaps even before patients try psychiatric drugs. "
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisSo spot and very important. Psychiatric drugs are overly prescribed without asking basic questions such as sleep patterns. Other basic questions should include amount of water and caffeine intake. Staying hydrated and limiting ones caffeine intake is important to overall health and helps improves ones sleep.
Its not just psychiatric disorders that are made worse by sleep disturbance. Chronic inflammatory diseases and pain syndromes are much more difficult in patients with OSA and other sleep problems. All patients should be screened for sleep disturbance.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThere is nothing so illusive as a result that is far removed from its cause. Poor sleep, as caused by modern lifestyles, is more destructive than junk food, additives, pesticides, radiation, HIV/Aids, or just about any other worldly evil that you can name and is so because none of the consequences are obviously connected to the problem. Health = Good sleep + good food + clean hands.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this2000 years B.C. in Asklepion of Pergamon, now Bergama in Turkey, did the founder of medical principles-and a lot more=Hypocrates, thought the same. He cured his patients mainly by improving their sleep and regulating their dreams. So: nothing new after 4.000 years, yep?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAlthough few would contest that a good night's sleep contributes to both physical and mental health, and that sleep apnea might be a cause of poor sleep, it is well-known that almost all depressives have trouble sleeping. I very much doubt that sleep apnea is behind this, as there are many depressives and only a relatively small population with sleep apnea. It also fails to explain why depressives feel less depressed on less sleep. The more they sleep during the night the worse they feel. They do, however, suffer from daytime drowsiness.I feel quite good in the morning after three hours sleep, but I do need to nap later in the day, after which I feel worse.I think the diagnosis of sleep apnea is an attempt to find a one size fits all explanation. By the way, I have had my sleep patterns throughly assessed, and I don't have sleep apnea.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisSleep is particularly important for people with bipolar d/o. Some have suggested this mental health problem stems from a problem with one's circadian rhythm.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisInterest in food, interest in sleep, sexual interest-Life sustains on these interests.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisNow there are filler activities between two periods of food, two periods of sleep, two periods of sex. We call filler activities as work, interaction with others, different sorts of entertainment and so on. The basic interests keep us tied to Life. The filler activities are for the perpetuation of Life, evolution of Life.
If two periods of say, food are not punctuated, intercepted by some other interest, the basic interest will collapse, Life will collapse.
Filler activities are like games to keep the brain alert and active. Like continuous winning and losing, ups and downs and so on. The illusion posits as winning, ups and favourables to stay-thus vitiates the play. One is not comfortable with uneasiness and uncertainty, which one experiences in filler activities. One remains stressed as one wants to feel comfortable about something, which can not be solved, dealt with Now.
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Don't confuse the quality of sleep with the quality of sleep. It took 30 years to diagnose my sleep apnea and during that time I also found that more sleep made me feel worse. Bad sleep is, in some ways, worse than no sleep.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAlso, realize that people who suffer with sleep apnea almost never know it. I sought help from many doctors in multiple disciplines before I finally was diagnosed correctly. My breathing was being interrupted fifty times an hour and I had no idea it was happening. CPAP treatment has changed my life. Your symptoms are almost exactly what I experienced. Please consult a sleep specialist.
Sleep experts say that most mental illness is due to lack of, and poor, sleep. To get the sleep you get at the coast when the wind blows in from the sea just heat salt water in an oil burner overnight. In just five nights insomnia is cured and it takes with it the symptoms of mental illness.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisYes, it is amazing how important sleep is for the body. I've done a couple Anatomy and Physiology current event articles on subjects that related to insufficient sleep and its effects on the human body. Is it not interesting how humans naturally void looking at the simple solutions to a problem? As in this article, sleep. We humans do this all the time...a simple answer just can't be. =)
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