Is Insomnia the Cause of Some Psychiatric Disorders?
Many people with psychiatric disorders do not sleep well and it has been thought that the mental disorder is the cause of the insomnia. However recent studies suggest that it may be the other way round, lack of sleep may be causing the disorder or making people behave in a way can be mistaken for a mental problem. A report in New Scientist ‘Are bad sleeping habits driving us mad?’ explores this possibility. Sleep treatment may help or cure people with some of these psychiatric disorders. There may however be many people who are taking drugs for the psychiatric disorders that are unnecessary and could be harmful.
It has long been known by doctors that insomnia and psychiatric problems are linked. Depression for instance can lead to people having difficulty in breathing while sleeping and many children with attention deficit disorder also have difficulty sleeping. Nobody questioned the assumption that the sleep problem was a result off the psychiatric problem rather than the other way around. Now Robert Stickgold who is a sleep researcher at Harvard University is questioning this assumption.
In one study by Patricia Chang at Johns Hopkins University it was found that there was a correlation between subjects who had trouble sleeping and the subsequent development of clinical depression. They concluded that insomnia indicated there was a greater risk of future mental problems.
For more information see the report New Scientist : Are bad sleeping habits driving us mad?