Paroxysmal sleep disorders in children with epileptic encephalopathies and autism spectrum disorders

Abstract

Purpose - to determine the prevalence of sleep disorders in children with epileptic encephalopathies and autism spectrum disorder (ASD): to evaluate the effectiveness of neuroadaptogenic «Silenta» in the treatment of sleep disorders in children in this group. Materials and methods. We examined 50 children with clinical manifestations of ASD aged 2 to 8 years (mean age was 4.3 years ± 1.5). including 31 boys and 19 girls. The examination included anamnesis to clarify the features of the pre- and perinatal period, clinical anc neurological examination, video EEG monitoring during night sleep for 8 hours, survey of parents on the quality of sleep in children usine the Children's Sleep Habits Questionnaire (CSHQ). All children were divided into 2 groups depending on clinical features: Group 1-28 children with ASD who had epileptic seizures at the time of examination or in the anamnesis (children with epileptic encephal opathies); Group 2-22 children with ASD without clinical epileptic seizures. Children from the 1 st group were prescribed neuroadaptogen «Silenta» for 30 days. Results. Children with ASD and epileptic seizures had higher sub-scales «Difficulty falling asleep», «Parasomnia» and the overall score on the CSHQ-A scale. The results indicate a negative impact of epileptic seizures in children with ASD on sleep quality and the frequency of paroxysma sleep disorders. The overall prevalence of sleep disorders in children with ASD was determined using the CSHQ-A questionnaire before anc after treatment. The incidence of sleep disorders in children with ASD and epileptic seizures after treatment decreased from 85.7% to 53.6%. and in children with ASD without epileptic seizures - from 63.6% to 22.7%. In both groups statistically significant reduction in the proportion of children with sleep disorders after a course of treatment with neuroadaptogen «Silenta». Conclusions. It is shown that the frequency of sleep disorders in children with ASD and epileptic seizures is 85.7%, and in children with ASD without epileptic seizures - 63.6%. In children with ASD and epileptic seizures the incidence of sleep disorders during 30 days of the neuroadaptogen «Silenty» decreased to 53.6%, and in children with ASD and without epileptic seizures the incidence of sleep disorders decreasec to 22.7%.