View clinical trials related to Parasomnias.
Filter by:Mild traumatic brain injuries (mTBI) or "concussions" are an increasingly prevalent injury in our society. Patients with post-concussion syndrome have been shown to have deficits on tests of short term memory, divided attention, multi-tasking, information processing speed, and reaction time, as well as alteration in mood and emotional functioning. Many patients have other vague complaints including fatigue, dizziness, irritability, sleep disturbances, and chronic headaches. Furthermore, sleep disruption of one of the most common complaints in patients suffering from traumatic brain injuries, with as many as 40 to 65% of patients with mTBI complaining of insomnia. Sleep problems in these patients are associated with poorer outcome, while resolution of the sleep disturbance is associated with improvement in cognitive functioning. Despite recent evidence of the correlation between sleep quality and recovery from traumatic brain injury, and the well-established role of sleep in neural plasticity and neurogenesis, there have been virtually no direct studies of the causal effects of sleep on recovery following mTBI. However, it is quite likely that sleep plays a critical role in recovery following brain injury. A particularly promising non-pharmacologic approach that shows potential in improving/modifying abnormalities of the circadian rhythm and sleep-wake schedule is bright light therapy. For the proposed investigation, we hypothesize that bright light therapy may be helpful in improving the sleep of patients with a recent history of mTBI and may also have other mood elevating effects, both of which should promote positive treatment outcome in these individuals. Bright light therapy may increase the likelihood that they will recover more quickly, benefit more extensively from other forms of therapy, and build emotional and cognitive resilience.
Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) are characterized by difficulties in language, social communication, and repetitive and restricted behaviors. ASD affects as many as 1 in 90-150 children. Sleep issues/insomnia is very common in children with ASD (50-80%). Insomnia has a negative impact on both the developmental and behavioral function of the child and the quality of life for the family. Causes of insomnia in children with ASD are multifactorial and can be difficult to treat effectively. Low iron stores, as manifest by low serum ferritin levels, is also common in children with ASD. Both insomnia and low iron stores are associated with Restless Legs Syndrome (RLS) and Periodic Limb Movement of Sleep (PLMS). Children with ASD often have difficulty communicating symptoms or tolerating Polysomnography (Sleep Study). This makes establishing a diagnosis of RLS or PLMS very difficult in children with ASD.
Background: A recent systematic review showed that patients undergoing esophagectomy for cancer had scores of physical function, vitality and performance of health in general significantly lower than those obtained from the reference population. The analysis of the quality of life at six months follow-up showed that the total score and physical function were better before surgery and symptoms-based scales indicated that the fatigue, dyspnoea and diarrhea were worse six months after esophagectomy. The objective of this study is therefore to assess the impact of esophageal resections for cancer on the quality of life of patients and to improve it through simple interventions of post operative care. The study is divided into two steps. This is step 1. Patients will be randomized into four groups receiving respectively: psychological counseling for support plus appropriate measures to reduce sleep-wake rhythm disorders during ICU stay; psychological counseling alone; appropriate measures to reduce sleep-wake rhythm disorders during ICU stay alone; or standard care. The primary end point are the items SL (sleep disorder) and QL2 of the QLQ C30, and the secondary end point is the score of the PSQI.
Several epidemiological studies in large cohorts suggest a strong association between sleep duration, complaint of insomnia and risk of hypertension.These findings suggest an important role of sleep quality in development of hypertension. Principal limitations of these studies are the cross-sectional study design, self-report sleep duration and poor measurement of blood pressure. The investigators propose to study an insomniac population with complete evaluation of quality and quantity of sleep, associated to complete hemodynamic measurement of hypertension.
Firefighters frequently work extended duration shifts and long work weeks which have adverse effects on alertness, health, safety and performance. This protocol uses a survey instrument to examine the effects of extended duration shifts on safety outcomes (e.g., motor vehicle crashes, accidents, injuries), health (e.g., diagnosis and treatment of sleep disorders, improved general health indices, decreased number of sick days), and performance (e.g., decreased response time). This study will expand understanding of the nature, scope, etiology and consequences of firefighter fatigue and increase our ability to develop guidelines that can be generalized across fire departments throughout North America. This study could provide an avenue to make lasting policy improvements that could enhance the safety, health, and performance of firefighters.
This study is designed to demonstrate that cherry juice is effective in treating insomnia, and to show that it works by inhibiting an enzyme that will be measured in the blood.
Opioid abuse is a complex problem, which not only impacts on addicts' physical and psychological health individually, but also threats the society. Recently, spread of HIV via sexual behavior and needle sharing among injecting drug users (IDUs) also becomes a serious public health problem all over the world. In Taiwan, since the first HIV-infected IDU identified in 1987, the incident cases have mounted to 2,461 in 2005. To prevent the epidemics of HIV among IDUs, the Center for Disease Control (CDC) thus collaborated with Department of Justice and implemented harm reduction programs in 2005. It is the milestone that opioid addiction is officially treated as a health rather than a legal issue in Taiwan. Among the harm reduction programs of needle and syringe exchange for IDUs as well as substitution treatment for opioid dependence, methadone maintenance treatment (MMT) is one of the most important parts. Till 2008, there were over 13,000 heroin addicts participated in more than 80 MMT programs. Although the clinical evidences have proven the superior effectiveness of maintenance therapy in ameliorating illicit substances abuse, decreasing criminality and improving quality of life, there are common problems of sleep disturbance and neurocognitive impairments among the subjects receiving opioid medications. The concerns of the adverse effects might thus frustrate the subjects' motivation and compliance to maintain treatments. However, sleep disturbance and neurocognitive impairments related to opioid medications are often neglected in the clinical practices and there are scanty researches focusing on these crucial issues in the existing literature. In this prospective study, four groups of subjects including methadone maintenance treatment, buprenorphine/naloxone, medication-free opioid ex-addicts and healthy volunteers will be enrolled. Via the comprehensive assessments including clinical interview, neurocognitive examinations, electrocardiogram-based sleep breathing detector and pharmacogenomical evaluation, we will not only have the opportunities to have more insights on the impacts of opioid medications on sleep and neurocognitive performances, but also develop more adequate strategies to improve motivation and outcome in treating the opioid addicts.
Sleep disorders (SD) are common in adults with Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD) on dialysis with a reported prevalence of 60-80%. To date three studies have reported on SDs in children with CKD but these have all been based on questionnaire data alone. The findings were not confirmed with polysomnograms (PSG), the gold standard to diagnose SD, or actigraphy, a validated tool to assess the sleep/ wake cycle over a prolonged period in the home. This is highly relevant given the poor sensitivity and specificity of even validated questionnaires alone. The effect of untreated pediatric SD is pervasive. This study will provide the first objective assessment of SDs using PSGs in children with severe CKD, both on and off dialysis. Therefore, we will recognize and when possible treat SD in this severe CKD cohort potentially contributing to their immediate management (eg improved control of hypertension, improved school performance), while improving their Quality of Life (QOL) and helping ensure they achieve their full potential.
Higher rates of mortality have been found both in short sleepers (< 6 hr/night) and long sleepers (> 8 hr/night), but there has been little experimental investigation of the effects of chronic, moderate sleep loss in long or average sleepers. Some scientists argue that older adults might be particularly vulnerable to negative effects of sleep loss, whereas other scientists argue that many older adults spend too much time in bed, and that moderate reduction of time-in-bed could help increase the quality of their sleep, and could even promote health and longevity, particularly in long sleepers. At 4 sites across the US, we will conduct a large (200 people), randomized, controlled, 5- year study to examine whether a 1-hour reduction of time spent in bed for 12 weeks has negative or positive effects on multiple health-related outcomes, including inflammation, sleepiness, body weight, mood, glucose regulation, quality of life, incidence of illness, and incidence of automobile accidents in older long sleepers as compared to older average sleepers.
Sleep disturbance is a common complaint among patients with atopic dermatitis(AD). Melatonin may aid sleep and also has anti-inflammatory properties, and has been suggested in managing sleep disturbance in AD patients. However, there has been no large randomized controlled trials. Hence the objective of this double-blind randomized controlled study is to determine whether supplementing melatonin is effective in improving sleep problems in children with AD.