Study Reveals Brain Activity During Sleep Differs In Young People With Genetic Risk Of Psychiatric Disorders

Young people living with a genetic alteration that increases the risk of psychiatric disorders have markedly different brain activity during sleep, a new study shows. “We have recently shown that the majority of young people with 22q11.2DS have sleep problems, particularly insomnia and sleep fragmentation, that are linked with psychiatric disorders,” says co-senior author Marianne van den Bree, Professor of Psychological Medicine at Cardiff University, UK. “Because sleep EEG is known to be altered in many neurodevelopmental disorders, the properties and coordination of these alterations can be used as biomarkers for psychiatric dysfunction” explained lead author Nick Donnelly, Clinical Lecturer in General Adult Psychiatry at the University of Bristol, UK To explore this in 22q11.2DS, the team recorded sleep EEG over one night in 28 young people aged 6-20 years old with the chromosome deletion and in 17 unaffected siblings, recruited as part of the Cardiff University Experiences of Children with copy number variants study, led by Prof. van den Bree. “Further study will now need to clarify the relationship between psychiatric symptoms, sleep EEG measures and neurodevelopment, with a view to pinpointing markers of brain circuit dysfunction that could inform doctors which patients are most at risk, and support treatment decisions.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9CpDmlf8GrU Read all the Latest Lifestyle News and Breaking News here