Restless sleep to dementia

REM sleep in which rapid eye movements occur, characterized in that the brain is very active but the muscles are partially paralyzed, by the action of the brainstem. Therefore, although suffering nightmares or vivid dreams, the body remains comfortably lying down. But patients with conduct disorder of REM sleep are not so fortunate: scream, cry, hit, kicked and sometimes fall out of bed. This condition also may be associated with future development of Parkinson's or other neurodegenerative diseases and
REM sleep and Dementia.
A team of researchers at the Hospital Clinic of Barcelona has just presented a method to determine, through a combination of two neuroimaging techniques, which of these people with sleep disorders are more likely to have Parkinson's, Lewy body dementia (a bad that produces paranoid delusions) or multiple system atrophy (a rare condition that affects mobility and bodily functions) the REM sleep and Dementia.. These degenerative diseases like himself REM sleep disorder, usually affecting men older than 60 years.

REM sleep and Dementia

The researchers, led by Dr. Alex Iranzo, Neurology Service Clinic, have continued for two and a half years a group of 43 patients with REM disorder, with an average of 70 years of age. Eight of them (ie about 30%) have developed at this time a neurodegenerative disease. And all these, according to results published by the Lancet Neurology (http://www.thelancet.com/) had shown in testing at baseline, low levels of dopamine, a hormone that functions as a neurotransmitter in the brain and whose absence is the main cause of Parkinson's.

The importance of this hormone is that scarcity can be detected years before showing the first symptoms of dementia. The researchers therefore hope that this can help in the future to detect the disease early and study their development during the early stages, before clinical manifestation the REM sleep and Dementia.. "This paper will matter in five or 10 years," predicts  Iranzo, "when neuroprotective drugs."
Wait for new therapies.

Restless sleep to dementia

The hope of this researcher is that, from here to that time, have developed new treatments that can control the disease since its first manifestations. But "for now, and unfortunately, the only thing we can do is to follow patients with more mime, watch rather than a microscope lens, and begin treatment sooner," says the researcher the REM sleep and Dementia..
The test consists of an ultrasound [transcranial sonography TCS] and CT [photon emission, or SPECT], seeking weaknesses of dopamine in two brain regions: the 'estratium' and 'black substance'. Up to 27 patients with sleep disorders (63%) showed alterations in some of these tests, that would be part of group at risk the REM sleep and Dementia.. Some of them, according to the study's authors fear, may join in the coming years to the eight that have already developed a neurodegenerative disease: five with Parkinson's disease, dementia and a two multiple system atrophy.
Other neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer's, are not related to REM disorder and are beyond the scope of this investigation. Despite the low number of people studied, the authors believe their results are about the possibility of detecting patients at risk, "definitive." "What we do now," says Iranzo, "this group is to follow long term the REM sleep and Dementia.."