Friday, February 29, 2008

Antidepressant drugs don't work – official study

They are among the biggest-selling drugs of all time, the "happiness pills" that supposedly lift the moods of those who suffer depression and are taken by millions of people in the UK every year.

But one of the largest studies of modern antidepressant drugs has found that they have no clinically significant effect. In other words, they don't work.

The finding will send shock waves through the medical profession and patients and raises serious questions about the regulation of the multinational pharmaceutical industry, which was accused yesterday of withholding data on the drugs.

REAS MORE @ THE INDEPENDENT

Thursday, February 28, 2008

Mental acuity in seniors improving, study suggests

The brain function of Americans 70 and older appears to be improving, according to a study that found a smaller percentage of seniors with serious memory and language problems in 2002 than in 1993.

The finding, which researchers say is still preliminary, parallels an improvement in physical functioning among older Americans that is well documented.

"If this study is indeed confirmed and replicated, then it says that cognitive decline associated with aging is malleable," said Richard Suzman, director for behavioral and social research at the National Institute on Aging, which helped fund the study. "There may be interventions that can be brought to bear to accelerate the trend. It's potentially very good news."

Although the study does not mean that every individual will live healthier into old age, it does suggest that as a whole, people are functioning at a higher level for longer periods. That could mean that more people will be able to live independently later in life, said Suzman.

READ MORE @ BOSTON GLOBE

Tuesday, February 26, 2008

Anti-depressants' 'little effect'

New generation anti-depressants have little clinical benefit for most patients, research suggests.

A University of Hull team concluded the drugs actively help only a small group of the most severely depressed.

Marjorie Wallace, head of the mental health charity Sane, said that if these results were confirmed they could be "very disturbing".

But the makers of Prozac and Seroxat, two of the commonest anti-depressants, said they disagreed with the findings.

A spokesman for GlaxoSmithKline, which makes Seroxat, said the study only looked at a "small subset of the total data available".

READ MORE @ BBC

Monday, February 25, 2008

Researchers explore the antidepressant effects of ketamine

Drug treatments for depression can take many weeks for the beneficial effects to emerge. The excruciating and disabling nature of depression highlights the urgency of developing treatments that act more rapidly. Ketamine, a drug used in general medicine as an anesthetic, has recently been shown to produce improvements in depressed patients within hours of administration. A new study being published in the February 15th issue of Biological Psychiatry provides some new insight into the mechanisms by which ketamine exerts its effects.

Ketamine is classified as an N-methyl d-aspartate (NMDA) glutamate receptor antagonist. Maeng and colleagues now provide new evidence that these antidepressant effects of NMDA receptor antagonists are mediated by their ability to increase the stimulation of á-amino-3-hydroxy-5-methylisoxazole-4-propionic acid (AMPA) glutamate receptors. In other words, their findings indicate that the antidepressant-like effects of drugs like ketamine are dependent on AMPA receptor stimulation. This suggests that drugs that enhance AMPA receptor function might have rapid antidepressant properties.

Dr. Husseini Manji, corresponding author on this paper and a Deputy Editor of Biological Psychiatry, explains that “by aiming new medications at more direct molecular targets, such as NMDA or AMPA, we may be able to bypass some of the steps through which current antidepressants indirectly exert their effects — a roundabout route that accounts for the long time it takes for patients to begin feeling better with the conventional medications.” He adds, “Today’s antidepressant medications eventually end up doing the same thing, but they go about it the long way around, with a lot of biochemical steps that take time. Now we’ve shown what the key targets are and that we can get at them rapidly.”

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2008-02/e-ret022108.php">READ MORE @ EUREKALERT

Sunday, February 24, 2008

SCIENTISTS who develop drugs are familiar with disappointment — brilliant theories that don’t pan out or promising compounds derailed by unexpected side effects. They are accustomed to small steps and wrong turns, to failure after failure — until, in a moment, with hard work, brainpower and a lot of luck, all those little failures turn into one big success.

For Darryle D. Schoepp, that moment came one evening in October 2006, while he was seated at his desk in Indianapolis.

At the time, he was overseeing early-stage neuroscience research at Eli Lilly & Company and colleagues had just given him the results from a human trial of a new schizophrenia drug that worked differently than all other treatments. From the start, their work had been a long shot. Schizophrenia is notoriously difficult to treat, and Lilly’s drug — known only as LY2140023 — relied on a promising but unproved theory about how to combat the disorder.

When Dr. Schoepp saw the results, he leapt up in excitement. The drug had reduced schizophrenic symptoms, validating the efforts of hundreds of scientists, inside and outside of Lilly, who had labored together for almost two decades trying to unravel the disorder’s biological underpinnings.

READ MORE @ NY TIMES
Daring to Think Differently About Schizophrenia - New York Times

Saturday, February 23, 2008

Antidepressants Can Help With Obsessive Compulsive Disorder

Common antidepressant drugs such as Prozac and Zoloft can be effective treatment options for obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD), according to a new review of studies.

Patients who take selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, or SSRIs, are twice as likely to get some relief from their OCD symptoms as those who take placebo pills are.

However, the drugs have a "modest" effect at best, said Dr. Ghulam Mustafa Soomro, lead review author and honorary research fellow at St. George's Hospital Medical School in London.

"Although SSRIs should be considered potentially effective treatments for OCD patients, treatment decisions need to take account of the potential adverse effects of these drugs," including nausea, insomnia and sexual dysfunction, he warned.


READ MORE @ MEDICAL NEWS TODAY

Friday, February 22, 2008

F.D.A. Seeks to Broaden Range of Use for Drugs

When federal drug regulators approve a medicine for sale, they limit how drug makers sell it. A drug approved to treat only breast cancer cannot be marketed for lung cancer even if some studies suggest that the medicine may save lung patients.

But the Food and Drug Administration proposed guidelines Friday that would change this, and advocates on both sides of the issue say that lives are at stake.

The rules would allow drug and device makers to provide doctors with copies of medical journal articles that discuss product uses that have not been vetted or approved by the F.D.A. The rules also say that drug companies do not have to promise to adequately test the unapproved use discussed in the article.

Advocates of the rule say the F.D.A. is so slow in assessing drug and device benefits that companies need to be able to hand out medical journal articles so that doctors can learn immediately about life-saving uses.

“The consequence of rapid disclosure of these benefits could be measured in lives,” said Dr. Scott Gottlieb, a former F.D.A. deputy commissioner.

READ MORE @ NY TIMES

Thursday, February 21, 2008

As depression symptoms improve with antidepressants, hopelessness can linger

A sense of hopefulness does not improve as quickly as other symptom

People taking medication for depression typically see a lot of improvements in their symptoms during the first few months, but lagging behind other areas is a sense of hopefulness, according to new research from the University of Michigan Health System.

That means people with depression may still feel a sense of hopelessness even while their condition is improving, which could lead them to stop taking the medication.

For many in the study, feelings of hopefulness did not improve until several weeks, or even months, after depressive symptoms lifted, says lead author James E. Aikens, Ph.D., associate professor in the Department of Family Medicine at the University of Michigan Health System.

“The finding suggests that some patients may become unduly pessimistic and stop adhering to an already-helpful therapy,” he notes. This finding is troubling, he says, because hopelessness is a strong risk factor for suicide.

The study appears in the January-February issue of the journal General Hospital Psychiatry.

READ MORE @ EUREKALERT

Wednesday, February 20, 2008

Schizophrenia Drug’s Dosage Drives Success

The Vanderbilt physician who in the late 1980s established the antipsychotic drug clozapine as the gold standard for treating patients with treatment-resistant schizophrenia has improved on his own research.

Herbert Meltzer, M.D., director of the Schizophrenia Program in the Department of Psychiatry, and colleagues have shown that the success of clozapine in treating this population was not due to the unique pharmacologic features of the drug itself, but the fact that it was used at higher doses than what is used to treat patients with schizophrenia who respond well to antipsychotic drugs. Clozapine is rarely used for the 70 percent of patients whose psychotic symptoms respond well to a wide array of other antipsychotic drugs.

The study, published in the Jan. 23 issue of The Journal of Clinical Psychiatry and funded by Eli Lilly, included 40 men and women, ages 18 to 58, diagnosed with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder, which many think is part of the same spectrum of illness. Patients were recruited from three U.S. outpatient community mental health treatment facilities, including Nashville's Centerstone Mental Health Center.

The results showed that the drug olanzapine, whose pharmacology is considered closer to clozapine than that of any other drug available, when used at a higher dose than the established norm, is as effective as clozapine in improving psychopathology and cognition in treatment-resistant patients. The study showed that treatment-resistant patients taking higher doses respond more slowly than average patients taking conventional doses. In fact, both need to be given for six months before a good treatment response occurs, compared to six weeks for the average patient at the lower dose range.

READ MORE @ NEWSWISE MEDICAL NEWS

Tuesday, February 19, 2008

Midlife Suicide Rises, Puzzling Researchers

Shannon Neal can instantly tell you the best night of her life: Tuesday, Dec. 23, 2003, the Hinsdale Academy debutante ball. Her father, Steven Neal, a 54-year-old political columnist for The Chicago Sun-Times, was in his tux, white gloves and tie. “My dad walked me down and took a little bow,” she said, and then the two of them goofed it up on the dance floor as they laughed and laughed.

A few weeks later, Mr. Neal parked his car in his garage, turned on the motor and waited until carbon monoxide filled the enclosed space and took his breath, and his life, away.

Later, his wife, Susan, would recall that he had just finished a new book, his seventh, and that “it took a lot out of him.” His medication was also taking a toll, putting him in the hospital overnight with worries about his heart.

Still, those who knew him were blindsided. “If I had just 30 seconds with him now,” Ms. Neal said of her father, “I would want all these answers.”

Mr. Neal is part of an unusually large increase in suicides among middle-aged Americans in recent years. Just why thousands of men and women have crossed the line between enduring life’s burdens and surrendering to them is a painful question for their loved ones. But for officials, it is a surprising and baffling public health mystery.

READ MORE @ NY TIMES

Monday, February 18, 2008

Sex differences in the brain's serotonin system

A new thesis from he Swedish medical university Karolinska Institutet shows that the brain’s serotonin system differs between men and women. The scientists who conducted the study think that they have found one of the reasons why depression and chronic anxiety are more common in women than in men.

Serotonin is a brain neurotransmitter that is critical to the development and treatment of depression and chronic anxiety, conditions that, for reasons still unknown, are much more common in women than in men. A research group at Karolinska Institutet has now shown using a PET scanner that women and men differ in terms of the number of binding sites for serotonin in certain parts of the brain.

Their results, which are to be presented in a doctoral thesis by Hristina Jovanovic at the end of February, show that women have a greater number of the most common serotonin receptors than men. They also show that women have lower levels of the protein that transports serotonin back into the nerve cells that secrete it. It is this protein that the most common antidepressants (SSRIs) block.

“We don’t know exactly what this means, but the results can help us understand why the occurrence of depression differs between the sexes and why men and women sometimes respond differently to treatment with antidepressant drugs,” says associate professor Anna-Lena Nordström, who led the study.

The group has also shown that the serotonin system in healthy women differs from that in women with serious premenstrual mental symptoms. These results suggest that the serotonin system in such women does not respond as flexibly to the hormone swings of the menstrual cycle as that in symptom-free women.

READ MORE @ EUREKALERT

Sunday, February 17, 2008

Suicide by Guard, Reserve Troops Studied

National Guard and Reserve troops who have fought in Iraq and Afghanistan make up more than half of veterans who committed suicide after returning home from those wars, according to new government data obtained by The Associated Press.

A Department of Veterans Affairs analysis of ongoing research of deaths among veterans of both wars — obtained exclusively by The AP — found that Guard or Reserve members were 53 percent of the veteran suicides from 2001, when the war in Afghanistan began, through the end of 2005.

The research, conducted by the agency's Office of Environmental Epidemiology, provides the first demographic look at suicides among Iraq and Afghanistan veterans who left the military — a situation that veterans and mental health advocates worry might worsen as the wars drag on.

Upon learning of the VA's findings on Tuesday, the Veterans of Foreign Wars called for the Pentagon and the VA to combine their efforts to track suicides among those who have served in those countries in order to get a clearer picture of the problem.

"We're very concerned for the overall well-being of our military men and women as well as our veterans and want to know, is there a growing problem that needs to be addressed by both the (Defense Department) and the VA?" said Joe Davis, the VFW's public affairs director. "To fix a problem, you have to define it first."

Military leaders have leaned heavily on Guard and Reserve troops in the wars. At certain times in 2005, members of the Guard and Reserve made up nearly half the troops fighting in Iraq.

Overall, they were nearly 28 percent of all U.S. military forces deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan or in support of the operations, according to Defense Department data through the end of 2007.

READ MORE @ ASSOCIATED PRESS

Saturday, February 16, 2008

Generics Capture 65% of U.S. Market as Costs Rise (Update1)

Two-thirds of prescriptions filled in the U.S., the most ever, are cheap copies of brand names made by generic-drug companies.

Generics accounted for 65 percent of the U.S. market last year, up from 63 percent in 2006, according to data released today at the Generic Pharmaceutical Association's annual industry meeting in Boca Raton, Florida. Costlier brand-name drugs made up about 80 percent of dollars spent on prescriptions in each year.

The figures, compiled by the research firm IMS Health Inc., show generic drugmakers are capitalizing on expiring patents and efforts by insurers to rein in health-care costs. The companies seek further gains this year as drugs with $20 billion in annual sales lose patent protection and the presidential candidates promise to make generic drugs more widely available.

``We're poised to do very well,'' said Kathleen Jaeger, president of the Arlington, Virginia-based Generic Pharmaceutical Association, in an interview yesterday. ``All the candidates believe that generics are part of the answer.''

READ MORE @ BLOOMBERG

Friday, February 15, 2008

Depression in Young Doctors Tied to Medication Errors

Medical residents who are depressed are about six times more likely to make medication errors than those who aren't depressed, says a study that looked a 123 pediatric residents at three children's hospitals in the United States.

Researchers found that 20 percent of the residents were depressed, and 74 percent were burned out. During the study period, the residents made a total of 45 medications errors, and those who were depressed made 6.2 times more medication errors than those who weren't depressed.

There didn't appear to be any link between higher medication error rates and burnout. The study was published online Feb. 7 in the British Medical Journal.

These findings suggest that doctors' mental health may play a more significant role in patient safety than previously suspected, the study authors said. In addition, the high burnout rate among residents in this study -- consistent with other studies -- indicates that methods of training doctors may cause stress that harms residents' health.

READ MORE @ US NEWS & WORLD REPORT

Thursday, February 14, 2008

Study Suggests Risperidone Long-Acting Injection Combined With Standard Treatment Helped Delay Time To Relapse In Patients With Bipolar Disorder

Patients with frequently relapsing bipolar disorder had a significant delay in the time to an initial relapse when risperidone long-acting injection (RLAI) was combined with standard treatment, according to a new study. The study compared patients who received RLAI and standard treatment to those who received standard treatment combined with placebo.

The study was presented yesterday at the 14th Biennial Winter Workshop on Schizophrenia and Bipolar Disordersin Montreux, Switzerland.1 This one-year, phase 3, trial is the first placebo-controlled study to explore the use of a long-acting injection medication in the maintenance treatment of frequently relapsing bipolar disorder (FRBD). FRBD, defined as four or more manic or depressive episodes in the previous year that require a doctor's care, may affect 20% of the 27 million people with bipolar disorder worldwide.2, 3

The study compared the time to the next mood episode, also known as a relapse, in FRBD patients receiving RLAI plus standard treatment vs. patients receiving placebo plus standard treatment. For most patients, standard treatment consisted of mood stabilizers, antidepressants, anxiolytics or combinations thereof. The trial showed that time to relapse was significantly longer in patients receiving RLAI compared with placebo (p=0.004) and the relative risk of relapse was 2.4 times higher with placebo. The relapse rates were 47.8% with placebo and 22.2% with RLAI.

READ MORE @ MEDICAL NEWS TODAY

Wednesday, February 13, 2008

Making Sense of the Great Suicide Debate

AN expression of true love or raw hatred, of purest faith or mortal sin, of courageous loyalty or selfish cowardice: The act of suicide has meant many things to many people through history, from the fifth-century Christian martyrs to the Samurais’ hara-kiri to more recent literary divas, Hemingway, Plath, Sexton.

But now the shadow of suicide has slipped into the corridors of modern medicine as a potential drug side effect, where it is creating a scientific debate as divisive and confounding as any religious clash.

And the shadow is likely to deepen.

After a years-long debate about whether antidepressant drugs like Prozac and Paxil increase the risk of suicide in some people, the Food and Drug Administration in recent days reported that other drugs, including medications used to treat epilepsy, also appear to increase the remote risk of suicide. The agency has been evaluating suicide risk in a variety of medicines, and more such reports — and more headlines — are expected.

READ MORE @ NY TIMES

Tuesday, February 12, 2008

Antidepressants Can Increase Depression, Impulsivity and Suicide Risk by Decreasing Dopamine

Antidepressant medications which increase serotonin neurotransmitter levels can depress dopamine levels. Decreasing dopamine level can increase depression, impulsivity and suicide risk in depressed patients, who were previously dopamine deficient. "When physicians prescribe serotonin enhancement medications to dopamine deficient patients, patients sometimes become more depressed, impulsive and suicidal," said Dr. Rick Sponaugle, Medical Director of Florida Detox.

Many depressed patients do not improve with Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitor (SSRI) Antidepressants, such as Prozac, Paxil or Zoloft. Prozac and Paxil only increase serotonin and norepinephrine activity. When serotonin is increased above normal levels with medication, the brain downregulates dopamine production. Dopamine downregulation explains why some patients become suicidal on "antidepressants."

Physicians must differentiate which "happy chemicals" require adjustment. There are five main "happy chemical" neurotransmitters, serotonin, dopamine, glutamate, norepinephrine and acetylcholine. Deficiency in any of these, can produce clinical depression.

Recent PET brain scan studies clearly reveal dopamine activates the human "pleasure center" (nucleus accumbens). The dopamine D2 receptor within the pleasure center appears to be our happy receptor. PET studies can accurately measure the difference in D2 activity among different patients.

READ MORE @ PR NEWSWIRE

Monday, February 11, 2008

Growing Up to Prozac: Drug makes new neurons mature faster

Peter Pan won't be pleased to hear the latest theory about how Prozac works. A new study shows that the antidepressant stimulates growth of neurons in the hippocampus and speeds the young brain cells toward maturity. The maturation process could be the mechanism by which the drug relieves depression.

Fluoxetine, the drug commonly known as Prozac, has been used to treat depression since the 1980s. Prozac and other SSRIs (selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors) block the ability of the neurons to take up serotonin, thereby raising levels of the active neurotransmitter in the brain. When people with depression begin taking such drugs, serotonin levels in the brain increase rapidly, but it often takes 2 to 4 weeks before they begin to feel better.

The new study, published Feb. 6 in the Journal of Neuroscience, suggests that the lag is due to the time it takes for serotonin to stimulate new neurons to grow, mature, and integrate into brain circuits.

René Hen, a neuroscientist at Columbia University, and his colleagues tested the long-term effects of Prozac treatment on a specially bred strain of nervous mice.

READ MORE @ SCIENCE NEWS

Sunday, February 10, 2008

Antidepressants are all the rage but have a dark side

Despite recent bad publicity over withheld studies showing marginal results, the resume of America's arsenal of antidepressants is enviable: consort to celebrities, subject of best-selling books and tabloid headlines. They may be the most celebrated pills since Valium.

Prozac, Zoloft, Paxil, Celexa and Lexapro, among others, have become both household words and medicine-cabinet staples. Known collectively as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, or SSRIs, these antidepressants are prescribed for anxiety, social phobia, obsessive-compulsive disorder and numerous conditions besides depression.

SSRIs are now the most commonly prescribed of all medications in this country. The rate at which physicians prescribed SSRIs more than doubled between 1995 and 2004, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. SSRIs are considered the first line of defense in treating depression, an illness that afflicts more than 20 million Americans.

READ MORE @ CHICAGO TRIBUNE

Saturday, February 9, 2008

Tainted Pills Hit U.S. Mainland

The first warning sign came when a sharp-eyed worker sorting pills noticed that the odd blue flecks dotting the finished drug capsules matched the paint on the factory doors.

After the flecks were spotted again on the capsules, a blood-pressure medication called Diltiazem, the plant began placing covers over drugs in carts in its manufacturing areas.

But the factory owner, Canadian drug maker Biovail Corp., never tried to find out whether past shipments of the drug were contaminated — or prevent future contamination, according to U.S. regulators.

Thirteen of the 20 best-selling drugs in the United States come from plants on this island. But an investigation by The Associated Press has found dozens of examples over four years of lapses in quality control in the Puerto Rican pharmaceutical industry, which churns out $35 billion of drugs each year, most of it for sale as part of the $300 billion market in the U.S.

An AP review of 100 pages of Food and Drug Administration reports shows even modern drug plants here under the watch of U.S. regulators have failed to keep laboratories sterile and have exported tainted pills.

READ MORE @ ASSOCIATED PRESS

Friday, February 8, 2008

Antidepressants That Are More Efficient And Faster

In the PhD defended by the pharmacologist and biochemist Jorge Emilio Ortega Calvo at the University of the Basque Country, a new anti-depressant treatment strategy is proposed that is capable of improving on the current one with its drawbacks.

Depression is a chronic and recurrent illness that can affect at least 20% of the population at some period in their lifetime, according to a number of studies carried out. Moreover, according to the WHO, by 2020 emotional state disorders could be the foremost or second cause for sick leave from work in the developed countries. Current ant-depressive therapies, nevertheless, are far from optimum.

This was the theme of the PhD thesis* presented by the pharmacologist and biochemist from the Basque province of Gipuzkoa, Jorge Emilio Ortega Calvo, undertaken at the Faculty of Medicine and Odontology of the University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU). Basically it was a study in which an analysis was undertaken of the action mechanisms of current antidepressant pharmacological drugs and new antidepressant treatment strategies put forward and that could be useful in the near future in order to address the failings in the current ones.

READ MORE @ SCIENCE DAILY

Thursday, February 7, 2008

Lilly's Monthly Zyprexa Causes Sleepiness, FDA Says (Update3)

Eli Lilly & Co's once-a-month version of its top-selling antipsychotic medicine Zyprexa, while effective, has risks that include excessive sleepiness, U.S. regulators said.

People with schizophrenia taking a monthly injection instead of daily tablets already on the market may experience ``profound sedation,'' staff of the Food and Drug Administration said in documents posted today on the agency's Web site. The sleepiness is a ``serious safety concern'' because of its severity and ``relatively high'' incidence, the FDA said.

An FDA advisory panel meets Feb. 6 to consider whether Lilly should be allowed to sell the monthly Zyprexa. Sales of Zyprexa tablets, also used to treat bipolar disorder, rose 9 percent to $4.76 billion last year, accounting for about a quarter of Indianapolis-based Lilly's revenue. The drugmaker is investing in new and reformulated products because the original Zyprexa may face generic competition as early as 2011.

``There's a huge demand,'' said Jeffrey Lieberman, the chairman of psychiatry at Columbia University in New York in a telephone interview. ``Even though this is a long-acting form of an existing drug, it's a significant event for the simple reason that the biggest trouble with treating people with antipsychotics is adherence to treatment.''

READ MORE @ BLOOMBERG

Tuesday, February 5, 2008

Antidepressants Don’t Ease Back Pain

Nearly one in four primary care doctors prescribes antidepressants as a treatment for low back pain. But a new report shows there’s no evidence the drugs offer any relief.

The finding comes from a review by the Cochrane Collaboration, a not-for-profit group that evaluates medical research. The use of depression pills to treat back pain has been controversial. Some studies have suggested a benefit while others have shown the drugs don’t help. Complicating matters is the fact that depression is common among sufferers of chronic back pain, so it’s not always clear if doctors are prescribing the drugs for pain relief or as a preventative measure against depression.

The Cochrane review, led by Donna Urquhart, a research fellow at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia, analyzed 10 published studies that compared antidepressants to placebos in patients with low back pain. Some of the patients had ruptured discs, slipped vertebrae, pinched nerves or other problems; some were depressed, while others were free of depression.

READ MORE @ NY TIMES

Sunday, February 3, 2008

Sleep disorders: Don't take it lying down

Millions suffer from sleep disorders – and many never seek help. But the cures are out there, says Roger Dobson

Getting to sleep tonight will be a big problem for millions of Britons. Insomnia affects one in four of us at some time, but it's far from the only disorder that spoils our sleep – researchers have now identified 75 such conditions, from snoring, sleep apnoea, restless legs, bruxism and nocturnal cramps, to sleep-talking, rhythmic movement disorder and confusional arousal. Some 31 per cent of people, including children and teenagers, have one or more of these disorders at some time. They can severely affect everyday life.

"Most of those with sleeping problems considered them to have an impact on their daily functioning, with family life most affected," say Paris University researchers who quizzed 10,000 men and women in the UK and other countries.

The research shows that many people don't seek help with their problems. "Almost half had never taken any steps to resolving them, and the majority had not spoken to a physician about their problems," researchers found. Yet treatments exist for many of the conditions that work well for large numbers of patients. Although half of those who see a doctor are prescribed drugs, other treatments and lifestyle changes can work, too.

READ MORE @ THE INDEPENDENT