2014 – Parasomnias and isolated sleep symptoms in Parkinson’s disease

Parasomnias and isolated sleep symptoms in Parkinson’s disease: A questionnaire study on 661 patients

Authors: Ari Ylikoski, Kirsti Martikainen, Markku Partinen
Date: 2014
Link: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jns.2014.08.025

Highlights

Occurrence of parasomnias was studied in 661 patients with Parkinson’s disease (PD).
Parasomnias and isolated sleep symptoms are frequent in patients with PD.
In PD patients, sleepwalking is highly associated with REM behavior disorder (RBD).
If a PD patient has sleepwalking, nightmares or sleep talking, RBD may be present.

Abstract

Background

Sleep disorders are among the most common non-motor symptoms in Parkinson’s disease.

Method

The prevalence of parasomnias and their association with other symptoms were studied in a questionnaire study among 1447 randomly selected Parkinson patients, aged 43 to 89 years. The response rate was 59.0% and of these 77% had answered to all questions that were used in the analyses ( N = 661).

Results

The prevalence of REM sleep behavior disorder (RBD) evaluated by the RBDSQ ≥ 6 was 39.0%. The occurrences of other parasomnias (≥ 1/week) in patients with PD were: nightmares 17.2%, night terrors 3.9%, sleepwalking 1.8%, enuresis 21.0%, and hallucinations 15.3%. Occurrences (≥ 1/week) of the isolated sleep symptoms were: nocturnal sweating 28.8%, bruxism 4.7%, and sleep talking 21.7%. Association of RBD with sleepwalking (parasomnia overlap disorder) was found in 1.7% of all PD patients. Adjusted logistic regression analysis showed that weekly nightmares (OR 12.5; 95% CI 5.3 to 29.7), hallucinations (OR 5.1; 2.1 to 12.4), sleep talking (OR 11.6; 5.9 to 22.8), male gender (OR 1.9; 1.1 to 3.1), and restless legs syndrome (OR 4.7; 1.7 to 13.2) associated with the presence of RBD.

Conclusion

Parkinson patients with RBD have often also other parasomnias and/or isolated sleep symptoms.

Keywords

Parkinson’s disease, Sleep ,RBD, Other parasomnias, Isolated sleep symptoms