Case study: sleep and aggressive behavior in a blind, retarded adolescent. A concomitant schedule disorder?
Blind people are prone to suffer from sleep-wake schedule disorders. This report describes 2 months of monitoring of sleep patterns and aggressive behaviors in a totally blind, severely retarded adolescent boy, hospitalized in a psychiatric hospital. The documented sleep-wake patterns seem to portray a sleep-wake schedule disorder with a monthly periodicity. Aggressive behaviors seem to echo the same periodicity, suggesting that a common or linked biobehavioral timing mechanism may underlie both sleep and episodic aggressive outbursts. The need to consider sleep schedule disorders as a primary process underlying some psychopathological disorders, and the related risks of misdiagnosis and mistreatment, are highlighted.
Sadeh
A
A
Department of Psychology, Tel-Aviv University, Israel.
Klitzke
M
M
Anders
T F
TF
Acebo
C
C
D000293:Adolescent; D000374:Aggression / Q000523:psychology*; D001766:Blindness / Q000523:psychology*; D002940:Circadian Rhythm; D006801:Humans; D008607:Intellectual Disability / Q000523:psychology*; D008297:Male; D010343:Patient Admission; D012893:Sleep Wake Disorders / Q000523:psychology*; D014851:Wakefulness