Abstract Mkid 75

To evaluate the effects of disordered sleep upon children’s attention and memory skills, before and after treatment. Prior to polysomnographic evaluation and following treatment, apnea and narcolepsy patients completed measures of auditory attention, visual attention, and general memory. Pretreatment scores of apneic and narcoleptic children were compared with standardized norms; following treatment their performance was compared with pretreatment scores. Participants were fourteen school-age children referred for polysomnographic evaluation. Seven children received the diagnosis of obstructive apnea and seven were diagnosed with narcolepsy. Sleep-disordered patients performed lower than standardized norms on measures of attention and memory prior to treatment. Further, subjects’ overall cognitive performance significantly improved following successful intervention. Separate posttreatment analyses revealed substantial improvement for both apnea and narcolepsy groups on overall measures of cognitive ability. The findings suggest that additional emphasis should be placed upon the clinical recognition, diagnostic accuracy, and early treatment of pediatric sleep disorders in order to avoid unnecessary diurnal complications.