Sleep disturbances in patients with Huntington's disease: A questionnaire-based study

Abstract

OBJECTIVES: To compare the sleep profiles of genetically proven cases of Huntington's disease (HD) with healthy controls and to correlate the results of various sleep-related parameters with disease severity, duration, and length of cytosine-adenine-guanosine repeats.METHODS: This prospective study was conducted at the National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (NIMHANS), Bengaluru, India, which included 31 genetically confirmed patients with HD and 50 controls. All the subjects were evaluated for sleep disturbances using standardized sleep questionnaires (Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index [PSQI] and Epworth Sleepiness Scale [ESS]).RESULTS: The mean age of the patients during the first consultation was 46.0±12.7 years (range: 28-80). The mean age at onset of symptoms was 40.5±13.8 years. Nineteen patients (61.2%) gave history of sleep disturbances. Symptom suggestive of rapid eye movement sleep behavior disorder was present in 8 patients (25.8%). Difficulty in falling asleep was the most common sleep-related disturbance reported by 16 patients (51.6%). The mean ESS score of the patients was 6.22±2.89 and that of the control population was 3.00±2.8 (P value 0.001). The mean PSQI score of the patients was 8.90±3.50 and that of the control population was 3.3±2.9 (P value 0.001).CONCLUSIONS: This study demonstrates sleep disturbances in patients with HD compared to healthy controls and the sleep disturbances correlated significantly with the disease duration, severity, and coexistent anxiety and depression.