Affiliations: Department of Neurosciences and Neurology, Rutgers
University-New Jersey Medical School, Newark, NJ, USA | Sleep Medicine Center, New Jersey Neuroscience
Institute, JFK Medical Center, Seton Hall University, Edison, NJ, USA | Department of Biology, The College of New Jersey,
Ewing, NJ, USA | Department of Pediatrics, Rutgers University-New
Jersey Medical School, Newark, NJ, USA
Note: [] Correspondence: Xue Ming, MD, PhD, Department of Neurosciences
and Neurology, UMDNJ-New Jersey Medical School, 90 Bergen Street, DOC 810,
Newark, NJ 07103, USA. Tel.: +1 973 9722 922; Fax: +1 973 9729 960; E-mail:
mingxu@rutgers.edu
Abstract: This study determined whether common symptoms of sleep disorders
were more prevalent in children with cerebral palsy (CP), epilepsy, and with CP
comorbid with epilepsy. The pediatric sleep questionnaire was administered to
the guardians of healthy control children (n=69), children
with CP (n=23), epilepsy (n=106), and
CP comorbid with epilepsy (n=29). Scores on symptoms of
sleep disordered breathing, insomnia, and excessive daytime sleepiness were
analyzed separately and compared among the groups using Kruskal-Wallis analysis
of variance by ranks. In comparison to controls, the CP group had a
significantly higher prevalence of sleep disordered breathing, insomnia, and
excessive daytime sleepiness, and the CP comorbid with epilepsy group exhibited
significantly higher prevalence of sleep disordered breathing and insomnia. The
epilepsy group showed significantly higher prevalence of sleep disordered
breathing than controls. The sleep complaints were more common in this cohort
of children with CP and/or epilepsy that deserve clinical attention for proper
diagnosis and treatment of sleep disorders.
