A preliminary study of sleep in adolescents with bipolar disorder, ADHD, and non-patient controls.

OBJECTIVES

To compare the sleep of adolescents with bipolar disorder (BD) to groups of adolescents with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder-combined type (ADHD-C) and those without psychopathology.

METHODS

A sample of 13 adolescents diagnosed with BD who were not in the midst of a mood episode, 14 adolescents with ADHD-C, and 21 healthy controls, all between the ages of 11 and 17 years served as participants. They were psychiatrically evaluated using a structured diagnostic interview and completed four nights of in-home sleep monitoring using actigraphy and sleep diaries.

RESULTS

Sleep diary estimates of sleep indicated that participants with BD experienced more awakenings than their peers with ADHD, whereas actigraphic estimates revealed that participants with BD slept longer and with less wakefulness than their peers.

CONCLUSIONS

In between mood episodes, adolescents with BD experience their sleep as more fragmented than that of their peers but do not exhibit more disturbed sleep as estimated by actigraphy. The possible influence of psychotropic medication is an important consideration when assessing sleep in the context of BD.