Insomnia Disorders in Young Patients After Cardiac Emergencies
Study Objective: To investigate the specific features of insomnia disorders in young patients with a history of cardiac emergencies. Materials and Methods: We have studied the specific features of night-time sleep patterns in 51 patients with mental disorders that developed after cardiac emergencies. Thirty-one patients had depressive disorders induced by other neurological and /or somatic illnesses and comorbid anxiety and phobic disorders and 20 patients had dysthymia. The control group included 20 patients who experienced a major depressive episode. The study methods included clinical examinations, psychopathological assessments, psychometric approach, and polysomnography. Study Results: The clinical examinations and psychopathological assessments found that 70.6% of patients with cardiac disorders complained of insomnia. Polysomnography showed that the prevalence of sleep disorders was significantly higher; this finding was seen as statistically significant. Hypnogram analysis revealed that patients with anxiety and phobic disorders had longer sleep latency, increased duration of stage 1 slow-wave sleep, and decreased REM sleep duration compared to patients with dysthymia. In patients with dysthymia, sleep disturbances were similar to those seen in patients who experienced a depressive episode. Conclusion: In cardiac patients, depressive disorders are most often associated with insomnia. These sleep disturbances have heterogeneous clinical manifestations that depend on predominant affective symptoms.