Taking a Look at Sleep Behavior Disorder (RBD)

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Rapid eye movement (REM) sleep behavior disorder (RBD) is a disorder that is characterized by failure to exhibit muscle paralysis or atonia during REM sleep. Along with lack of muscle atonia, patients with RBD display behaviors of “acting out” their dreams, which can be harmful to themselves or others around them (Gagnon, Postuma, Mazza & Montplaisir, 2006, p. 425). It has been reported that the dreams are usually very vivid nightmares or close to them and are usually violent, which are expressed through running, punching, kicking, and more injurious behavior (Paparrigopoulos, 2005, p. 294). In 1986 Schenck and his colleagues recognized RBD as a clinical disorder and then in 1990 it was included into the “International Classification of Sleep Disorders” (Gagnon et al., 2006, p. 425). The American Academy of Sleep Medicine states that there are the three categories that distinguish RBD. The categories are: mild, moderate, and severe. Mild RBD is where the patient experiences the “acting-out” of dreams at least once a month and it only causes mild discomfort. Moderate RBD is more physically discomforting than mild and is experienced more than once a month, but not once per week. Severe RBD is the hardest, and includes experiencing “acting-out” their dreams at least once per week and results in physical injury of their person or of others around them (as cited in Paparrigopoulos, 2005, p. 294). RBD is a very rare disorder and therefore reports of an exact prevalence is not known. Paparrigopoulos reports an estimate of about .5% in the overall population, though it has been shown to be more prominent in males (2005, p. 294). There are two identifications of RBD, the majority of the observed cases are defined as “idiopathic”, which m... ... middle of paper ... ... of the 44 participants had developed a neurodegenerative disorder (Mahowald & Schenck, 2013, p. 417). There was another study done by Schenck and his colleagues and they found that in after a five year follow-up 11 out of 29 (38%) developed a neurodegenerative disorder after being initially diagnosed with RBD. After a seven year follow-up their results showed an increase of 27% of the participants developed a neurodegenerative disorder (Gagnon et al., 2006, p. 428). Though, findings state that RBD can occur anything to 5 years till up to half a century before other symptoms of a neurodegenerative disease (Mahowald & Schenck, 2013, p.418). In conclusion, studies have shown that 30-65% of patients with idiopathic RBD will eventually develop a neurodegenerative disorder with the rate of appearance depending on the length of the follow-up period (Fulda, 2011, p.451).

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