How long can a schizophrenic go without sleep?
8 answers found
This represented a failure of deactivation in the schizophrenic patients.
We concluded that objective sleep variables are related to subjective sleep estimation in schizophrenic patients.
Available data suggest that previous duration of neuroleptic treatment, duration of neuroleptic withdrawal, presence of tardive dyskinesia, and severity of psychotic symptoms should be considered when interpreting REM sleep measures in schizophrenic patients.
The evidence is most clear in the study of experimental deprivation of REM sleep, but it is also suggested by the longitudinal study of the two acute schizophrenic patients.
A number of sleep parameters, such as the amount of SWS and the REM latency, are significantly correlated to clinical variables, including severity of illness, positive symptoms, negative symptoms, outcome, neurocognitive impairment and brain structure. Concerning specific sleep disorders, there is some evidence that schizophrenic patients carry a higher risk of experiencing a sleep-related breathing disorder, especially those demonstrating the known risk factors, including being overweight but also long-term use of antipsychotics.
The experimental findings of the effects of sleep deprivation, sensory isolation, drugs, and a combination of drugs and sensory isolation in control and schizophrenic subjects warrants the development of a hypothesis within this context to explain some of the mechanisms responsible for schizophrenic behavior.
However, no definitive interpretation of these findings can yet be made; further extensive and systematic case studies are needed to determine whether the sleep disturbances reported here are an inherent aspect of all acute schizophrenic exacerbations.
Possibly, the effects of second-generation antipsychotics observed on sleep in healthy subjects and schizophrenic patients might involve the action of these drugs on symptomatology, such as depression, cognitive impairment, and negative and positive symptoms. Specific sleep disorders, such as RLS, sleep-related breathing disorders, night-eating syndrome, somnambulism and rhythm disorders have been described as possible adverse effects of antipsychotics and should be considered in the differential diagnosis of disturbed or unrestful sleep in this population.
