New Electrographic Marker? Evaluation of Sleep Spindles in Children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder

Objective: Attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is one of the most common developmental disorders in childhood which last lifelong. Sleep structure and sleep spindle features are disorganized in ADHD. In this study, we aimed to look for a new, simple, inexpensive, and an easily detectable electrographic marker in the diagnosis of ADHD by using electroencephalography (EEG). Method: Treatment free thirty-five patients with ADHD and 32 healthy children (HC) who were previously interviewed about sleep disorders were examined by polysomnography (PSG). Overnight polysomnographic sleep recordings were conducted in the hospital of the participants. The ADHD group were separated into three groups according to predominant presentations of ADHD. We determined the sleep staging and slow and fast sleep spindles amplitude, frequency, activity, duration and density at first 5 minutes of the first non rapid eye movement (REM) sleep stage 2 sleep. Results: Slow sleep spindles amplitude, duration, density and activity are significantly higher in predominantly inattentive type (ADHD‐I) than the HC group (p<0,05). Sleep spindles amplitude, duration, frequency, density and activity are not statistically significant between ADHD subgroups. Conclusions: In children with ADHD, slow sleep spindles showed higher amplitude, activity, density and duration in the frontal regions. These results indicate that slow sleep spindles in children with ADHD may reflect executive dysfunction and slow frontal spindles may be useful as a new electrographic marker in children with ADHD. This is the first study of its kind evaluating all aspects of sleep spindles in ADHD patients.
Keywords: Keywords: ADHD, electroencephalography, childhood, Polysomnography, Sleep spindles