Jactatio capitis nocturna with persistence in adulthood. Case report.
Rhythmic movement disorder, also known as jactatio capitis nocturna, is an infancy and childhood sleep-related disorder characterized by repetitive movements occurring immediately prior to sleep onset and sustained into light sleep. We report a 19-year-old man with a history of headbanging and repetitive bodyrocking since infancy, occurring on a daily basis at sleep onset. He was born a premature baby but psychomotor milestones were unremarkable. Physical and neurological diagnostic workups were unremarkable. A hospital-based sleep study showed: total sleep time: 178 min; sleep efficiency index 35.8; sleep latency 65 min; REM latency 189 min. There were no respiratory events and head movements occurred at 4/min during wakefulness, stages 1 and 2 NREM sleep. No tonic or phasic electromyographic abnormalities were recorded during REM sleep. A clinical diagnosis of rhythmic movement disorder was performed on the basis of the clinical and sleep studies data. Clonazepam (0.5 mg/day) and midazolam (15 mg/day) yielded no clinical improvement. Imipramine (10 mg/day) produced good clinical outcome. In summary, we report a RMD case with atypical clinical and therapeutical features.
Alves
R S
RS
Centro de Estudos do Sono (CES) do Hospital das Clínicas (HC) da Faculdade de Medicina, Universidade de São Paulo (FMUSP), Brasil. rosalves@usp.br
Alóe
F
F
Silva
A B
AB
Tavares
S M
SM
D000328:Adult; D000929:Antidepressive Agents, Tricyclic / Q000627:therapeutic use; D006801:Humans; D007099:Imipramine / Q000627:therapeutic use; D008297:Male; D010507:Periodicity; D017286:Polysomnography; D012893:Sleep Wake Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000188:drug therapy; D012895:Sleep, REM; D019956:Stereotypic Movement Disorder / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000188:drug therapy
D000929:Antidepressive Agents, Tricyclic; D007099:Imipramine