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British Neuropsychiatry Association AGM and Joint conference with the Section of Neuropsychiatry of RCPsych 9/10/11 February 2011, Institute of Child Health, Central London
Oral presentations
OP.05 Assessment of sleep disorders in psychiatric practice
  1. H Selsick

    Hugh Selsick attained a BSc in Physiology, a BSc Honours in Experimental Physiology and MBBCh at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. He works as a psychiatrist for Camden and Islington Foundation Trust in London. He is the chair of the Sleep Group, a special interest group in the Section of Neuropsychiatry at the Royal College of Psychiatrists. He is Lead Clinician of the Insomnia Clinic at the Royal London Hospital for Integrated Medicine/University College London Hospitals. His special interests are insomnia and the relationship between sleep and psychiatric disorders.

Abstract

There is often a perception that Sleep Medicine relies largely on very specialised laboratory investigations, such as the overnight polysomnogram, to reach a diagnosis. But in fact a good history is a vital first step in the process of assessing sleep disorders and may in fact be sufficient to reach a diagnosis in several disorders. However, taking a sleep history has the added complication that you are trying to elicit information about what happens to the patient when they are not fully conscious! This can therefore seem a daunting task.

This talk aims to present a practical approach to taking a sleep history that breaks the history down into discrete areas, namely (1) what happens during sleep (2) what happens during wakefulness (3) what happens at the sleep/wake boundary and (4) how these all fit together over the course of a 24-h period. It will also cover some of the questionnaires used to assist history taking and will offer some guidance on when and where to refer patients for more specialist assessments and investigations.

http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/jnnp-2011-300504.5

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