Sleep breathing and sleep movement disorders masquerading as insomnia in sexual-assault survivors

A descriptive, hypothesis-generating study was performed with 156 female se xual-assault survivors who suffered from insomnia, nightmares, and posttrau matic stress disorder (PTSD), They completed 2 self-report sleep questionna ires to assess the potential presence of intrinsic sleep disorders. Seventy -seven percent of the sample (120 of 156) endorsed additional sleep complai nts, besides their insomnia symptoms, that indicate the potential presence of sleep-disordered breathing ([SDB] 81 of 156, 52%) and sleep-related move ment disorders ([SMD] 94 of 156, 60%). The potential for SDB was strongly c orrelated with the body mass index (BMI), an increase in arousal symptoms, and greater total PTSD severity. in some sexual-assault survivors, the rela tionship between sleeplessness and posttraumatic stress may be caused or ex acerbated by intrinsic sleep disorders, and not be solely a function of psy chophysiological insomnia-the traditional diagnostic term usually offered t o explain the sleep problems associated with PTSD. Prevalence studies that use objective diagnostic evaluations such as polysomnography (PSG) are need ed to test these hypotheses. Copyright (C) 2000 by W.B. Saunders Company.