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Functional Imagery of Sleepwalking

University Hospital Center (CHU) logo

University Hospital Center (CHU)

Status

Completed

Conditions

Sleepwalking

Treatments

Other: Single-photon emission computed tomography

Study type

Interventional

Funder types

Other

Identifiers

NCT02844231
UF 8585

Details and patient eligibility

About

Sleepwalking (also called somnambulism) is a disorder in which only SWS is disrupted. This NREM parasomnia is characterized by inappropriate motor behaviors, usually initiated during arousal from SWS, that induce psychological distress and alter quality of life, leading to fatigue, excessive daytime sleepiness, and objectively impaired vigilance in the morning.

The pathophysiology of sleepwalking remains poorly understood. Sleepwalkers had difficulty maintaining stable, consolidated sleep and experienced more arousals and microarousals, specifically from SWS, leading to increased NREM instability, especially during the first sleep cycles. The brain is partially awake, resulting in behavioral manifestations, and partially in NREM sleep, resulting in no conscious awareness of actions.

A Single Photonic Emission Computed Tomography (SPECT) study of one sleepwalking episode found increased activation in the posterior cingulate cortex and cerebellum, with deactivation in the frontoparietal associative cortices. Data from intracerebral EEGs during confusional arousals confirmed both local arousal of the motor and cingulate cortices and increased delta activity in the frontoparietal associative cortices.

The investigators thus proposed a controlled study of SPECT imagery in 24 sleepwalkers (12 SPECT during a SW episode and 12 SPECT during slow wave sleep and 24 during wakefulness) and 12 controls (during slow wave sleep and wakefulness). SW episodes will be elicited by sleep deprivation condition associated with forced arousal (auditory stimulus).

The comparative analyses of SPECT acquisitions between different states (wakefulness, slow wave sleep and SW) and populations (sleepwalkers versus controls) will provide new insights about the complex pathophysiology of SW episodes.

Enrollment

47 patients

Sex

All

Ages

18 to 39 years old

Volunteers

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion and exclusion criteria

PATIENTS

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Subject diagnosed with NREM parasomnia according the international classification of sleep disorders
  • More than one episode per week
  • More than one hypersynchronous delta wave arousal recorded on polysomnographic assessment
  • Affiliated to social security
  • Age between 18 years-old and 39 years-old

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Patient taking any psychotropic drug during the two weeks before the inclusion
  • Patient with obstructive sleep apnea Syndrome, restless legs syndrome, nocturnal epilepsy and unstable psychiatric disease.

CONTROL GROUP

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Affiliated to social security
  • Age between 18 years-old and 39 years-old

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Subject taking psychotropic drug during the two weeks before the inclusion
  • Subject with following medical history : NREM parasomnia, neurologic or psychiatric disorder, obstructive sleep apnea syndrome, restless legs syndrome, nocturnal epilepsy.

Trial design

Primary purpose

Basic Science

Allocation

Randomized

Interventional model

Parallel Assignment

Masking

Single Blind

47 participants in 3 patient groups

Sleepwalker, SW episode
Other group
Description:
Sleepwalker patients undergo single-photon emission computed tomography during a sleepwalking episode.
Treatment:
Other: Single-photon emission computed tomography
Sleepwalkers, slow wave sleep
Other group
Description:
Sleepwalker patients undergo single-photon emission computed tomography during slow-wave sleep.
Treatment:
Other: Single-photon emission computed tomography
Control group
Other group
Description:
Control subjects undergo single-photon emission computed tomography during slow-wave sleep.
Treatment:
Other: Single-photon emission computed tomography

Trial contacts and locations

1

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Data sourced from clinicaltrials.gov

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