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| |  AAN: Parkinson’s Disease Linked To Excessive Sleepiness By Jill Stein Special to DG News
PHILADELPHIA, PA -- May 10, 2001 -- Excessive daytime sleepiness - particularly sleep attacks - is common in patients with Parkinson’s disease, investigators announced at the 53rd Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Neurology. Natividad P. Stover, MD, and colleagues at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, surveyed 200 consecutive patients with Parkinson’s disease in their movement disorders clinic. Data were collected on age, gender, neurologic and medical diagnoses, duration of Parkinson’s disease, medications, medication doses and sleep patterns. The Epworth Sleepiness Scale, completed by the patient and spouse/significant other, was used to evaluate the tendency to fall asleep in different everyday situations. Of the 200 patients, 188 were on levodopa, 52 were on pramiprexole, 46 were on ropinirole, 36 were on pergolide and eight were on bromocriptine. One patient was not receiving any medications, and one patient was on trihexiphenidyl and selegilene alone. Overall, 29 (14 percent) patients had sleep attacks. Excessive daytime sleepiness was reported in 28 (96 percent) of 29 patients with sleep attacks and in 144 (84 percent) of the 171 patients without sleep attacks. The mean Epworth score in patients with sleep attacks was 14.3 versus 9.5 in patients without sleep attacks. Of the 29 patients reporting sleep attacks, 28 were on levodopa, 13 were on pramiprexole, five were on ropinirole, six were on pergolide, none was on monotherapy, and none was on bromocriptine. No patient who had sleep attacks had experienced an automobile accident. Based on the findings, Dr. Stover recommended that Parkinson’s disease patients be queried about their sleeping habits and possible sleep problems during their regular office visits.
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