Self-mutilation and sleep stage in the Lesch-Nyhan syndrome.

Correlation of self-mutilation and sleep stage in the Lesch-Nyhan syndrome was studied by a polygraphic method. Five patients and three control boys were monitored with EEG, EOG, EMG, ECG and respiration throughout the night. The results were as follows: 1. The sleep-time of the patients was much disturbed during the night. 2. Decreased REM density was noticed with low DQ of the patients. 3. Self-mutilation during sleep-time was observed a lot in stages 1, 2, and REM in two cases. 4. No correlation was observed between body movement and self-mutilation in the Lesch-Nyhan syndrome. These data suggested functional disorders of the frontal lobe in the patients.