Case study: sleep and aggressive behavior in a blind, retarded adolescent. A concomitant schedule disorder?

J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry. 1995 Jun;34(6):820-4. doi: 10.1097/00004583-199506000-00024.

Abstract

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.

Publication types

  • Case Reports

MeSH terms

  • Adolescent
  • Aggression / psychology*
  • Blindness / psychology*
  • Circadian Rhythm*
  • Humans
  • Intellectual Disability / psychology*
  • Male
  • Patient Admission
  • Sleep Wake Disorders / psychology*
  • Wakefulness