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Phenomenology of dreams in Parkinson's disease
Author(s) -
Borek Leora L.,
Kohn Robert,
Friedman Joseph H.
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
movement disorders
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.352
H-Index - 198
eISSN - 1531-8257
pISSN - 0885-3185
DOI - 10.1002/mds.21255
Subject(s) - dream , rapid eye movement sleep , rem sleep behavior disorder , psychology , parkinson's disease , population , content (measure theory) , psychiatry , disease , eye movement , medicine , neuroscience , mathematical analysis , environmental health , mathematics
Rapid eye movement sleep behavior disorder (RBD) occurs in approximately one third of patients with Parkinson's disease (PD) and is associated with a loss of muscle atonia during REM sleep and aggressive dream content. We examined the dream characteristics of PD patients to determine whether dream content differed between patients with RBD and without RBD, men and women with RBD, and men and women with PD. One hundred‐twenty patients with a diagnosis of idiopathic PD were consecutively recruited from a movement disorders clinic and were assessed for RBD using clinical diagnostic criteria of the International Classification of Sleep Disorders Revised (2001). Verbatim dream content was obtained from each patient and categorized into dream themes that were coded into nominal categories. Fisher's exact tests determined whether particular dreams were correlated with RBD versus non‐RBD, men and women with RBD, and men and women with PD. RBD patients had a higher percentage of violent dreams compared to non‐RBD patients. There were no significant sex differences in the dream content of RBD patients. Men with PD had more aggressive dreams compared to females with PD. Aggressive dream content was characteristic of RBD patients and sex differences exist in the dream content of the PD population. © 2006 Movement Disorder Society