ADHD Causes Sleeping Agony
2007-05-21
By Tamara McLean
May 09, 2007 12:00
MOST children with ADHD are struggling with serious sleeping problems that damage their quality of life, make them late for school and spark severe depression in their parents, new Australian research shows.
The results were so startling that specialists believe poor sleep itself could be fuelling difficult behaviour in these troubled children, so treating the problem could actually improve symptoms of their attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).
The survey presented to a national medical conference today found that 74 per cent of children with ADHD had sleeping problems, usually difficulty falling asleep, tossing and turning, and extreme tiredness when waking up.
These problems were graded 'moderate to severe' in 45 per cent of the 240 Victorian children surveyed, the Royal Australasian College of Physicians conference was told.
"This is well over the reported 10 to 15 per cent among school-aged children without ADHD," said study leader Dr Valerie Sung, a paediatric doctor from the Royal Children's Hospital in Melbourne.
Children with moderate to severe sleeping problems had significantly lower quality of life and more were likely to be late or skip school.
Their parents were also heavily affected, with questionnaires showing they were 2.7 times more likely to have a mental health problem than parents of ADHD kids without sleeping problems.
"They were also more likely to be late for work or take a day off it seems," Dr Sung said.
The link between ADHD and sleep is well known, but this is the first study to calculate the prevalence of the problem and investigate the ripple-on effect to their families.
Dr Sung and researchers at the Centre for Community Child Health now plan to conduct a large scale study of sleep therapy on ADHD children to see if it has a marked effect on the child's symptoms.
Half the children involved in the randomised controlled trial will get specialist appointments with a sleep expert.
"Basically we want to see whether solving their sleep problems could actually improve their behaviour," Dr Sung said.
"If that's the case then it may be that we can actually reduce the amount of medication that some kids may need to manage their condition which would be great."
Dr Sung urged parents of ADHD children to ask for help from either their local doctor, paediatrician or from a specialist sleep clinic.
Source: The Daily Telegraph
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