The Prevalences of Anxiety and Depressive Disorders in Patients of Pediatric Sleep Disorders

ABSTRACT

PURPOSE: Sleep disorder is common in childhood and adolescence with prevalence of 27-62%, and the patients could have trouble with their daily life due to fatigue and headache; and it can also cause developmental disability, learning disorder, anxiety disorder, and depressive disorder. We studied the prevalence of anxiety and depressive disorder in childhood and adolescence with sleep disorder. METHODS: We studied 34 cases of patients under twenty-year-old who took a sleep polysomnography test at Sleep Center of Keimyung University Dongsan Medical Center and who could answer sleep survey questionnaires; and we used testing methods of Questionnaire for insomnia, Epworth sleepness scale, Hospital Anxiety Depression Scale, and Back Depression Inventory. We studied sleep disorder as two categories of sleep apnea and other sleep disorders and also the relationships of sleep and anxiety and depressive disorder with chi-square test. RESULTS: 29.4% of sleep disorder patients had anxiety disorder, and 47.1% depressive disorder. Considering the two categories of sleep disorder, anxiety disorder was significantly higher(P<0.005) in sleep apnea group with 43.5% than in other sleep disorder group with 9.1%. Depressive disorder was also significantly higher(P<0.05) in sleep apnea group with 65.6% than in other sleep disorder group with 36.4%. CONCLUSION: The patients with sleep disorder also had a tendency of having mood disorder, with prevalence of 29.4% of anxiety disorder and 47.1% of depressive disorder; especially in the group of sleep apnea, mood disorders was significantly higher than other sleep disorder group, which means more aggressive diagnosis and treatment are needed for the combined condition of sleep and mood disorder.