Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) in children and adolescents is much more prevalent than most practitioners realize: it is found in 1% to 4% of children… Read More
ASH 2013 has uncovered 2 glaring gaps in the management of people with sleep disorders (OSA as well as others) and appropriate care after a stroke.... More »
The electroencephalogram (EEG) has a limited but definitive role in understanding and managing psychiatric conditions. When the presentation is... More »
Sleep disorders are among the most common medical complaints. To better address the problem, the NSF has launched a comprehensive free online sleep... More »
Young women who report having sleeping difficulties “often” in their early 20s have a 4- to 5-times increased risk of depression within 9 years,... More »
Insomnia—a sleep disorder that can pose impairments far more debilitating than than problems with cognition (eg, difficulty processing, unclear... More »
AbstractObjective To evaluate the effectiveness of a behavioural-educational sleep intervention delivered in the early postpartum in improving maternal and infant sleep.Design Randomised controlled trial.Setting Postpartum units of two university affiliated hospitals.Participants 246 primiparous women and their infants randomised while in hospital with an internet based randomisation service to intervention (n=123) or usual care (n=123) groups.Interventions The behavioural-educational sleep intervention i
AbstractObjective To determine whether there is an association between use of substances that contain caffeine and the risk of crash in long distance commercial vehicle drivers.Design Case-control study.Setting New South Wales (NSW) and Western Australia (WA), Australia.Participants 530 long distance drivers of commercial vehicles who were recently involved in a crash attended by police (cases) and 517 control drivers who had not had a crash while driving a commercial vehicle in the past 12 months.Main ou
Persistent hiccup can cause anorexia, weight loss, disabling sleepdeprivation, anxiety, and depression. Therefore, relief of persistent hiccup is important for advanced cancer patients and their family. Most reports on this condition are case series reports advocating the use of baclofen, haloperidol, gabapentin, and midazolam. However, these medications are occasionally ineffective or accompanied by intolerable side effects. The sodium channel blocker lidocaine has been shown to be effective in trea
AbstractObjective To evaluate the risk of narcolepsy in children and adolescents in England targeted for vaccination with ASO3 adjuvanted pandemic A/H1N1 2009 vaccine (Pandemrix) from October 2009.Design Retrospective analysis. Clinical information and results of sleep tests were extracted from hospital notes between August 2011 and February 2012 and reviewed by an expert panel to confirm the diagnosis. Vaccination and clinical histories were obtained from general practitioners.Setting Sleep centres and p
Many patients diagnosed with bipolar disorder (BD) respond incompletely or unsatisfactorily to available treatments. Given the potentially devastating nature of this prevalent disorder, there is a pressing need to improve clinical care of such patients.|We performed a literature review of the research findings related to treatment-resistant BD reported through February 2012.|Therapeutic trials for treatment-resistant bipolar mania are uncommon, and provide few promising leads other than the use of clozapine. Far more pressing challenges are the depressive-dysthymic-dysphoric-mixed phases of BD and long-term prophylaxis. Therapeutic trials for treatment-resistant bipolar depression have assessed anticonvulsants, modern antipsychotics, glutamate [N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA)] antagonists, dopamine agonists, calcium-channel blockers, and thyroid hormones, as well as behavioral therapy, sleepdeprivation, light therapy, electroconvulsive therapy (ECT), transcranial magnetic stimulation,
The onset of action of antidepressants often takes 4 to 6 weeks. The antidepressant effect of wake therapy (sleepdeprivation) comes within hours but carries a risk of relapse. The objective of this study was to investigate whether a new chronotherapeutic intervention combining wake therapy with bright light therapy and sleep time stabilization could induce a rapid and sustained augmentation of response and remission in major depressive disorder.|75 adult patients with DSM-IV major depressive disorder, recruited from psychiatric wards, psychiatric specialist practices, or general medical practices between September 2005 and August 2008, were randomly assigned to a 9-week chronotherapeutic intervention using wake therapy, bright light therapy, and sleep time stabilization (n = 37) or a 9-week intervention using daily exercise (n = 38). Patients were evaluated at a psychiatric research unit. The study period had a 1-week run-in phase in which all patients began treatment with duloxetine.
The efficacy of modafinil as a countermeasure in the reduction of cognitive decline following 24 h of sleepdeprivation (SD) on subjective sleepiness scales, event-related potential (ERP) P300, and contingent negative variation (CNV) was evaluated.|Eleven healthy males, age 25-30 years participated. The experiment was performed in five sessions on different days between 7 and 8a.m. Session 1, baseline recordings; Session 2, after one night's SD; Session 3, 48 h of recovery from SD; Session 4, after 1 week of Session 1, following one night's SD along with modafinil (400mg/day); Session 5, 48 h of recovery after SD+modafinil.|Subjective sleepiness scores increased significantly after SD as compared to baseline (P<0.01), but remained unaltered after modafinil supplementation. There was an increase in N100 and P300 peak latencies of ERP following SD (P<0.01), which was reduced with modafinil (P<0.05). There was an increase in CNV M100 and P300 peak latencies after SD (P<0.01) which
Shift work is necessary for hospitalists to provide on-site 24-hour patient care. Like all shift workers, hospitalists working beyond daylight hours are subject to a misalignment between work obligations and the endogenous circadian system, which regulates sleep and alertness patterns. With chronic misalignment, sleep loss accumulates and can lead to shift work disorder or other chronic medical conditions. Hospitalists suffering from sleepdeprivation also risk increased rates of medical errors. By realigning work and circadian schedules, a process called circadian adaptation, hospitalists can limit fatigue and potentially improve safety. Adaptation strategies include improving sleep hygiene before work, caffeine use at the start of the night shift, bright light exposure and planned naps during the shift, and short-term use of a mild hypnotic after night work. If these attempts fail and chronic fatigue persists, then a diagnosis of shift work disorder should be considered, which can
The specific clock-gene PERIOD3 is important with regard to circadian rhythmicity, sleep homeostasis, and cognitive function. The allele PER3(5/5) has been associated with worse cognitive performance in response to sleepdeprivation. We hypothesized that patients with the PER3(5/5) genotype would have an increased risk of postoperative cognitive dysfunction (POCD) 1 week after noncardiac surgery.|Blood samples were analyzed from 93 patients with POCD and 186 patients without POCD from a completed multicenter study. The study population comprised patients ages 40 years and older undergoing noncardiac surgery who were tested preoperatively and 1 week after surgery with a neuropsychological test battery comprising 7 subtests. PER3 genotypes were determined by polymerase chain reaction analysis of DNA from blood samples (Clinicaltrials.gov identifier NCT01088100).|The frequencies of the 3 genotypes were 11.8% (32 patients) PER3(5/5), 41.7% (113 patients) PER3(4/5), and 46.5% (126 patients)
Chair) Director Sleep Disorders Center Montefiore Medical Center Bronx, New York Bruce L. ... of life due to waking discomfort, chronic sleepdeprivation, and stress.
Five Steps to Improving Patient Access Judy Capko, May 21, 2013 Patient access is getting increased attention through reform initiatives. Here are five steps you can take to make sure patients get appropriate access to care in your office.
Growing HIPAA Threat – Ignore Windows XP at Your Own Peril Marion K. Jenkins, May 21, 2013 Chances are good that you have some major ticking software time bombs lurking in your medical practice's computer environment, namely Windows XP and Server 2003.
Three Areas to Reduce Costs at Your Medical Practice Greg Mertz, May 19, 2013 By taking a hard look at reducing costs for staffing, overhead, and technology at your medical practice, you may see increased physician compensation.
Dos and Don’ts for Starting a Physician Blog Michael Woo-Ming, MD, May 18, 2013 Starting a physician blog can provide your medical practice with marketing benefits, but it's important to do it right.