Sleep disordered breathing in community psychiatric patients

Abstract

Background and Objectives: Sleep disturbance is prominent in many neuropsychiatric disorders and may precipitate or exacerbate a range of psychiatric conditions. Few studies have investigated sleep disordered breathing and in particular obstructive sleep apnoea in community psychiatric patients and the commonly used screening instruments have not been evaluated in patients with psychiatric disorders. The objective is to evaluate the prevalence of sleep disordered breathing in a community cohort with chronic mental illness on long term psychotropic medication, and to assess the effectiveness of commonly used screening instruments to detect abnormal sleep.