Can chronic neuroleptic treatment promote sleep disturbances in elderly schizophrenic patients?

✍ Scribed by Jürgen Staedt; Dagrun Dewes; Peter Danos; Gabriela Stoppe

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 2000
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 124 KB
• Volume: 15
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0885-6230
• DOI: 10.1002/(sici)1099-1166(200002)15:2<170::aid-gps88>3.0.co;2-h

✦ Synopsis

It has been proposed that sleep disturbances, especially reduced delta sleep, are related to a poor outcome in schizophrenia. To determine whether long-term treatment with neuroleptics can promote sleep disturbances by increasing the risk of a nocturnal myoclonus syndrome (NMS) ( periodic movements in sleep) related insomnia, we performed all-night polysomnography in 10 chronically ill schizophrenic patients who had been under neuroleptic therapy for a mean of 27 years. NMS-related insomnia was detected in all 10 patients. Potential pathophysiological relationships between long-term neuroleptic therapy and NMS occurrence are discussed. Our ®ndings suggest that long-term administration of neuroleptics favours the appearance of insomnia.