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REM sleep behaviour disorder in Hong Kong Chinese: clinical outcome and gender comparison
  1. Y K Wing,
  2. S P Lam,
  3. S X Li,
  4. M W M Yu,
  5. S Y Y Fong,
  6. J M Y Tsoh,
  7. C K W Ho,
  8. V K H Lam
  1. Department of Psychiatry, Shatin Hospital, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, Hong Kong SAR
  1. Dr Y K Wing, Sleep Assessment Unit, Department of Psychiatry, Shatin Hospital, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, Hong Kong SAR; ykwing{at}cuhk.edu.hk

https://doi.org/10.1136/jnnp.2008.155374

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    REM sleep behaviour disorder (RBD) is a parasomnia characterised by a history of dream-enactment behaviours during REM sleep, resulting in shouting, punching, jerking, kicking, falling out of bed and sleep-related injuries (SRI).1–3 The estimated prevalence rate of RBD was similarly about 0.4–0.5% in both Caucasian and Hong Kong Chinese elderly populations. There were only few large clinical series of RBD of Caucasian descents.1–3 Hence, we aimed to report our RBD series for cross-cultural comparison of clinical and gender-related findings.

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    Table 1 Comparison of demographic data, clinical features, comorbidities and treatment efficacy among reported case series

    From 1994 to 2006, 82 patients (male: 81.7%) were diagnosed to have RBD according to the International Classification of Sleep Disorder (1st and 2nd editions) in our sleep clinic, which was a main centre in receiving clinical referrals from different disciplines locally. The mean age of onset and diagnosis was 62.1 (SD 12.9) and 67.4 (SD 10.0) years, respectively. Sleep talking, shouting, vigorous movements of arms and legs were commonly reported nocturnal behaviours. Dream recall was available in 75.6% patients (62/82). The violent themes emerged from their dreams consisted of active defence against others (50%, 31/62), defence against animals (17.7%, 11/62) and aggression towards others (24.2%, 15/62). Two patients (3.2%) reported dreams of being chased by a ghost, …

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    Footnotes

    • Competing interests: None.