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Query: UMLS:C0917801 (insomnia)
 10,606 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Information which has emerged thus far relates to the overall transmitter mechanisms of sleep. The data, while conflicting, point to the involvement of many neuroregulators at numerous integrative levels of the process. However the long term question still remain: what triggers and maintain sleep, what stops sleep, what occurs to the body and brain during sleep--in essence, why sleep? These questions are now problems for behavioral neurochemists, whereas in a previous era, they were problems for philosophers. Unfortunately, our answers to date, while in another idiom, have hardly been more complete or satisfying. To answer these questions, it will be necessary to understand, in detail, the manner in which neurobiochemical processes relate to the functional physiology of sleep. Although existing studies have given invaluable insight into the neurochemical anatomy of sleep, we have only recently acquired the technical and biochemical expertise necessary to investigate sleep as it occurs normally. Future research must focus on the dynamic changes associated with the regulatory mechanisms of neurotransmitters. Many questions can be asked. With sleep transitions, what changes occur in transmitter content, synthesis, or release? Are there changes in metabolic pathways, reflecting a shift from intra- to interneuronal metabolism? What changes occur in pre- and postsynaptic neurotransmitter receptors to affect sensitivity? What constraints do genetic (245) and environmental (246) factors impose upon these mechanisms? Knowledge of such parameters will allow us to construct more complete models of the neuroregulatory basis of sleep and waking. However, as we acquire this knowledge, we must avoid the temptation of assuming causation when the evidence merely shows correlation. Neuroregulation are involved in the control of number different behaviors; and, at present, we have few, if any, methods of establishing causative links between a specific neuroregulator and a specific behavioral state. Yet, even without an understanding of what "causes" sleep, we may be able to develop pharmacological agents which permits discrete alteration of sleep mechanisms in a more physiological and specific manner. This potential for manipulation of sleep is of obvious importance in illnesses such as insomnia, narcolepsy, and sleep apnea (247, 248). In addition, it may be valuable in the treatment of such conditions as psychosis and depression, where sleep disturbances are an important component of the illness. For example, delirium tremens might be best understood as a psychotic episode which is the result of an aspect of sleep emerging into wakefulness. The range and breadth of both the basic questions and the potential application of sleep research portend an exciting future for this field.
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PMID:Neuroregulators and sleep mechanisms. 16 54

Alcohol withdrawal syndromes in humans lie on a continuum of increasing severity, from the acute hangover to delirium tremens. Early mild reactions consist primarily of hyperexcitability phenomena such as tremor, insomnia, hyperreflexia and hyperventilation. In more severe degree, the same process gives rise to hallucinations and seizures. These early reactions are mimicked closely by alcohol withdrawal signs in experimental animals. Late reactions in humans are characterized by marked sympathetic nervous system overactivity, profound disorientation and hallucinations. Analogous reactions have not yet been observed clearly in other species. The problem may be one of finding appropriate techniques for detecting such changes, rather than a true species difference in their occurrence.
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PMID:Alcohol withdrawal syndromes in the human: comparison with animal models. 33 82

Narcolepsy is clinically associated with cataplexy, sleep paralysis and hypnagogic hallucinations. It is treated by reassurance (that there is no physical disease) and by stimulants such as ephedrine and amphetamine on an intermittent basis. The special tricyclic antidepressant clomipramine is also used, and mono-amine oxidase inhibitors (MAOIs) are useful in theory. Obstructive sleep apnoea is an important and often unrecognised cause of daytime somnolence. It is treated by weight reduction (pickwickian syndrome), hormones, or recently, with continuous positive pressure apparatus. Night terrors (pavor nocturnus) and sleepwalking typically occur during deep sleep (stage 3 and 4 throughout the episode) in children. In a night terror the child sits up with a scream, with eyes open, but inaccessible. He eventually falls asleep calmly. Sleepwalking, too, shows the features of inaccessibility and subsequent amnesia for the episode. Both conditions are normally treated with reassurance (to the parents) but may occasionally warrant benzodiazepines. Enuresis usually occurs in non-rapid eye movement (NREM) sleep, especially stages 3 and 4. The reason for the efficacy of tricyclic antidepressants is not precisely known. Delirium tremens (DT) is treated as a rebound excess of REM sleep, with benzodiazepines and other drugs. It is the withdrawal syndrome (with or without major seizures) to the barbiturate-alcohol group of drugs, which includes alcohol, chloral, paraldehyde, glutethimide, methylprylone, ethchlorvynol, meprobamate and meprobamate-diphenhydramine. Insomnia may be treated by the above drugs, by analgesics, antidepressants, major tranquillisers (neuroleptics) and miscellaneous other compounds. For the majority of patients, however, the most suitable group seems to be the benzodiazepines. The benzodiazepines are much safer than their predecessors, in both acute and chronic usage.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
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PMID:The treatment of sleep disorders. 158 14

Patients with alcohol dependence commonly experience symptoms of anxiety, depression, and insomnia. It is essential that clinicians recognize and treat anxiety disorders in alcoholic patients. Panic attacks with and without agoraphobia are especially prevalent among alcoholics and their families. Treatments of choice for panic disorder are the monoamine oxidase inhibitors, as well as tricyclic antidepressants and the benzodiazepine alprazolam. Benzodiazepines seem to be effective in controlling two pathophysiologic characteristics of alcohol withdrawal--noradrenergic and hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenocortical overactivity. They also can be used to prevent and treat withdrawal seizures and delirium tremens. They are not indicated for the treatment of alcohol dependence per se.
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PMID:Anxiety and alcoholism. 268 Nov 71

1. Alcohol withdrawal is a complex syndrome that ranges from anxiety, insomnia to delirium tremens. Common treatment is the application of sedative medication. Exposure to bright light in the daytime should advance the normal sleep/wake cycle and moreover it should improve the availability of man's adaptive behavior during alcohol withdrawal. 2. This pilot study describes bright light therapy (BL) during alcohol withdrawal in ten alcohol dependent patients (DSM-III-R: 291.80) without any sedative medication. BL (3000 Lux) was administered on day 3 of abstinence between 7.00-9.00 a.m. and 5.00-9.00 p.m. Total-sleep-polysomnography (recordings between 10.30 p.m.-6.00 a.m.) and self-rating scale were performed to compare intraindividual changes during three nights. After one adaptation night (immediately after alcohol withdrawal), one baseline night and one "BL-night" and one "post-BL night" were analysed. 3. At baseline, total sleep time and sleep efficiency were severely deteriorated, but tended to improve in the following nights after BL. Sleep onset latency showed a significant decline after BL. Stages 3 and 4 were reduced at baseline. Latencies to slow wave sleep were significantly shortened after BL. REM increased in the nights after BL. Subjective sleep quality improved after BL. Although the present results, bright light having a possible stabilizing effect on sleep maintenance and sleep architecture during acute alcohol withdrawal, the authors could only derive hypotheses for further ongoing controlled investigations using placebo light, to receive final verification.
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PMID:Sleep quality during alcohol withdrawal with bright light therapy. 938 Jul 92

Fatal familial insomnia, Morvan's chorea and delirium tremens share the same clinical features: severe insomnia and mental confusion with dream enactment, associated with motor and autonomic activation. Polygraphically, they share an inability to generate slow wave sleep. Agrypnia excitata is the term which aptly defines this peculiar medical condition. In fatal familial insomnia, the syndrome is due to a functional imbalance between activating and deactivating structures within the limbic system provoked by the atrophy of the mediodorsal and anteroventral thalamic nuclei. In Morvan's chorea and delirium tremens, a functional imbalance within the thalamolimbic circuits might be explained by the accumulation of some antireceptor antibodies and by a transient prevalence of excitatory over inhibitory synapses, down-regulated by chronic alcohol abuse, respectively. The selective disappearance of slow sleep (i.e. sleep spindles and delta rhythms) characterizing the agrypnia excitata syndrome, together with other clinical and experimental findings, suggests that sleep can be divided into three types. The most archaic form of sleep corresponding to stage 1 non-REM sleep is shared by man and poikilothermic animals and generated within activating and deactivating neuronal poles located in the basal forebrain, hypothalamus and brain stem; the other two forms of sleep, slow wave sleep and paradoxical sleep, confined to homeothermic animals, are generated in the thalamus and pontine reticular formation respectively. 2001 Harcourt Publishers Ltd
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PMID:Agrypnia excitata: clinical features and pathophysiological implications. 1253 Sep 95

The spectrum of alcohol withdrawal symptoms ranges from such minor symptoms as insomnia and tremulousness to severe complications such as withdrawal seizures and delirium tremens. Although the history and physical examination usually are sufficient to diagnose alcohol withdrawal syndrome, other conditions may present with similar symptoms. Most patients undergoing alcohol withdrawal can be treated safely and effectively as outpatients. Pharmacologic treatment involves the use of medications that are cross-tolerant with alcohol. Benzodiazepines, the agents of choice, may be administered on a fixed or symptom-triggered schedule. Carbamazepine is an appropriate alternative to a benzodiazepine in the outpatient treatment of patients with mild to moderate alcohol withdrawal symptoms. Medications such as haloperidol, beta blockers, clonidine, and phenytoin may be used as adjuncts to a benzodiazepine in the treatment of complications of withdrawal. Treatment of alcohol withdrawal should be followed by treatment for alcohol dependence.
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PMID:Alcohol withdrawal syndrome. 1505 9

Insomnia is the most common sleep complaint. Insomnia is not a disease itself but mostly a clinical sign of an underlying disease. Degenerative and vascular diseases involving the central nervous system (CNS) may impair sleep either as a result of the brain lesion or because of illness-related discomfort (motor immobility, social and familial impairment, depression, drugs). Some neurological conditions characterized by movement disorders that start or persist during sleep hinder sleep onset and/or sleep continuity, causing a poor sleep complaint. CNS lesions and/or dysfunction in three specific neurological conditions (fatal familial insomnia, Morvan's chorea, and delirium tremens) impair the basic mechanisms of sleep generation inducing a syndrome in which the inability to sleep is consistently associated with motor and sympathergic overactivation. Agrypnia excitata is the term that aptly defines this generalized overactivation syndrome.
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PMID:Insomnia in neurological diseases. 1579 40

This review summarizes the pioneering steps culminating in the identification of a novel disease, fatal familial insomnia (FFI), a hereditary prion disease. Together with Morvan's chorea and delirium tremens, FFI is characterized by an inability to sleep associated with motor and autonomic overactivation. We named this pattern agrypnia excitata, a syndrome caused by a dysfunction in thalamolimbic circuits. This review highlights the strategic role of the limbic thalamus in the central autonomic network running from the limbic cortex to the lower brainstem and regulating sleep and wakefulness.
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PMID:Fatal familial insomnia and agrypnia excitata. 1794 67

Fatal familial insomnia, a human prion disease, Morvan's chorea, an autoimmune limbic encephalopathy, and delirium tremens, the well-known alcohol (or benzodiazepine [BDZ]) withdrawal syndrome, share a clinical phenotype largely consisting in an inability to sleep associated with motor and autonomic activation. Agrypnia excitata is the term which aptly defines this clinical condition, whose pathogenetic mechanism consists in an intralimbic disconnection releasing the hypothalamus and brainstem reticular formation from corticolimbic inhibitory control. Severance of cortical-subcortical limbic structures is due to visceral thalamus degeneration in fatal familial insomnia, and may depend on autoantibodies blocking voltage-gated potassium channels within the limbic system in Morvan's chorea, and the sudden changes in gabaergic synapses down-regulated by chronic alcohol abuse within the limbic system in delirium tremens. On the basis of these findings, we suggest that a neuronal network, extending from the medulla to the limbic cortex, controls the sleep-wake cycle, operating in an integrated fashion following a caudorostral organization.
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PMID:Fatal insomnia and agrypnia excitata: sleep and the limbic system. 1880 3


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