An article appearing in the current issue of Brain, the
Oxford Journal of Neurology, reveals that researchers at the Mayo Clinic have
found a correlation between REM behavior disorder and Parkinson's or Lewy body dementia.
REM (rapid eye movement) sleep occurs in brief spurts of
increased activity in the brain and is considered the dreaming stage of sleep.
While in REM sleep, the eyes can be seen moving rapidly beneath the eyelids.
Most dreaming occurs during REM and the body is essentially paralyzed to avoid
the “acting out” of dreams.
RBD is rapid eye movement behavioral disorder. It's
characterized by the acting out of violent dreams during REM sleep. Sometimes
the victim of RBD will shout or strike out during an episode. This can become
so violent that bed partners may be injured.
Research shows that patients who suffer from RBD may later
develop Parkinson’s disease or a less common but related disease called Lewy
body dementia. Parkinson's disease is a degenerative disorder of the central
nervous system that impairs motor skills and speech. It can occur with or
without dementia. Lewy body dementia is caused by damage in the brain. The name
derives from the deposits seen microscopically in the brain after death which
contain damaged nerve cells. Lewy bodies were named for the doctor who
discovered them.
Although RBD victims are usually older males, the disorder
can strike younger people and women as well. Mayo clinic researchers followed
these cases for many years and saw many as two-thirds of them develop symptoms
of Parkinson's disease or Lewy body dementia.
"Our data suggest that many patients with idiopathic
(not associated with any other neurologic symptoms) RBD may be exhibiting early
signs of an evolving neurodegenerative disease, which in most cases appear to
be caused by some mishap of the synuclein protein," says Bradley Boeve,
M.D., Mayo Clinic neurologist and lead author of the article.
Synuclein protein is implicated in the pathogenesis of both Parkinson's
disease and Lewy body dementia, as well.
Unfortunately, many cases of RBD go undetected because the
victim sleeps alone, the condition is tolerated, or in some cases,
misdiagnosed.
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