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Cognitive Effects of Sleep Apnea and Narcolepsyin School Age Children
David E.Hansen, Ph.D.and Brian Vandenberg, Ph.D.
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 cores of apneic and narcoleptic children were com-
pared 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 inter-
vention.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 com-
plications.(Sleep and Hypnosis 2001;3(2):73-80)
| Keywords: pediatrics, neuropsychology, sleep disorders, apnea, narcolepsy, cognitivefunctions |
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