Sleep Abnormalities Common In Juvenile Rheumatoid Arthritis Patients

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Sleep Abnormalities Common In Juvenile Rheumatoid Arthritis Patients

A DGReview of : " Sleep and Its Relationship to Pain, Dysfunction, and Disease

Activity in Juvenile Rheumatoid Arthritis "

Journal of Rheumatology

01/16/2002

By

Patients with juvenile rheumatoid arthritis frequently experience sleep

abnormalities, including night wakings, parasomnias, sleep anxiety,

sleep-disordered breathing, morning wakening and daytime sleepiness.

Some evidence suggests that self-reported sleep abnormalities are associated

with pain scores in these patients.

Investigators studied the sleep characteristics of 25 children with active

juvenile rheumatoid arthritis. Patients completed the Sleep Self-Report (SSR)

and their parents completed the Children's Sleep Habits Questionnaire (CSHQ).

Juvenile rheumatoid arthritis disease activity was assessed by parent and doctor

global assessments, erythrocyte sedimentation rate and the number of swollen and

limited joints.

Function was evaluated by the Juvenile Arthritis Functional Assessment report,

completed by the patients' parents. The average pain visual analog scale of the

Varni Pediatric Pain Questionnaire was used to assess pain.

Forty-five healthy age- and sex-matched controls were also evaluated for

comparison.

Results showed that juvenile rheumatoid arthritis patients had a higher total

score on the CSHQ compared with controls. They also had higher scores on

subscales that assessed night wakings, parasomnias, sleep anxiety,

sleep-disordered breathing, and morning wakening and daytime sleepiness.

Scores on the CSHQ did not correlate with disease activity or pain. However,

scores on the SSR were correlated with pain scores.

J Rheumatol 2002; 29: 169-173