title: Sleep in nondepressed patients with panic disorder: I. Systematic assessment of subjective sleep quality and sleep disturbance.
abstract: To systematically assess sleep complaints in panic disorder (PD), the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) was administered to 34 untreated patients with DSM-III-R PD and 34 age-matched healthy controls (HC). PD patients reported significantly more impaired sleep than HC as indicated by higher global index scores on the PSQI (6.9 +/- 2.9 versus 3.1 +/- 2.0; p < 0.0001) and on four of seven of its subscales; sleep was worst among those PD patients with a prior history of major depression. Sixty-eight percent of patients with PD reported moderately or severely impaired sleep compared to only 15% of HC (chi 2 = 17.5, p < 0.0005). Twenty-six percent of PD patients--but none of the HC--complained of frequent awakenings in the preceding month because they "could not breathe comfortably" (Fisher's exact test, p < 0.00625). One-month prevalence of sleep panic in the patients was 18%; lifetime prevalence was 68%. Whereas these findings confirm previous reports of frequent sleep complaints in patients with PD, they also raise the possibility that some of the findings might be trait phenomena attributable to a history of mood disorder.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Canada.
authors.forename: M B
authors.initials: MB
authors.lastname: Stein
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Chartier
authors.forename: J R
authors.initials: JR
authors.lastname: Walker
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D016584:Panic Disorder / Q000503:physiopathology*; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology; D012890:Sleep / Q000502:physiology*; D012893:Sleep Wake Disorders / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000523:psychology