Published online December 1, 2008
PEDIATRICS Vol. 122 No. 6 December 2008, pp. e1164-e1167 (doi:10.1542/peds.2008-1303)
This Article
Right arrow Full Text
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me when eLetters are posted
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Right arrow Citation Map
Services
Right arrow E-mail this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to My File Cabinet
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via CrossRef
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Nguyen, B. H.
Right arrow Articles by Montplaisir, J.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Nguyen, B. H.
Right arrow Articles by Montplaisir, J.
Related Collections
Right arrow Office Practice
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us   Add to Digg   Add to Facebook   Add to Reddit   Add to Technorati   Add to Twitter  
What's this?

ARTICLE

Sleep Terrors in Children: A Prospective Study of Twins

Bich Hong Nguyen, MDa, Daniel Pérusse, PhDb, Jean Paquet, PhDa, Dominique Petit, PhDa, Michel Boivin, PhDc, Richard E. Tremblay, PhDd and Jacques Montplaisir, MD, PhDa

a Sleep Disorders Center, Sacre-Cœur Hospital
b Research Center, Sainte-Justine Hospital
d Research Unit on Children's Psychosocial Maladjustment, University of Montreal, Montreal, Quebec, Canada
c Research Unit on Children's Psychosocial Maladjustment, Laval University, Quebec City, Quebec, Canada

OBJECTIVE. There is growing evidence that genetic factors are involved in the occurrence of sleep terrors. Twin studies provide invaluable information regarding genetic and environmental factors that can affect the manifestation of the disease; however, most previous twin studies on sleep terrors were performed retrospectively or with a sample that was too small to yield conclusive results. The aim of this large prospective study was to clarify the genetic and environmental contributions to sleep terrors in childhood.

METHODS. In all, 390 pairs of monozygotic and dizygotic twins were recruited at birth for a longitudinal study. The prevalence and frequency of sleep terrors were assessed at 18 and 30 months of age with a questionnaire administered to the biological mother of the twins. Zygosity was determined by a questionnaire and genotyping. The prevalence and polychoric correlation for each type of twins were calculated. Structural-equation modeling was used to determine the proportion of variance attributable to additive genetic, shared, and nonshared environmental factors.

RESULTS. The prevalence of sleep terrors was 36.9% at 18 months and 19.7% at 30 months; 49% of affected children were boys, and 51% were girls. At 18 months, the polychoric correlations were 0.63 for monozygotic and 0.36 for the dizygotic twins. These were 0.68 (monozygotic) and 0.24 (dizygotic) at 30 months. Our model-fitting analysis showed that sleep terrors were explained by a 2-component model at 18 months (43.7% additive genetic effects and 56.3% nonshared environment) and at 30 months (41.5% additive genetic effects and 58.5% nonshared environment).

CONCLUSIONS. These results strongly support the heritability of sleep terrors. There also seems to be continuity in genetic effects with the persistence of sleep-terror symptoms.

Key Words: sleep terrors • pediatrics • genetics • twins • epidemiology

Abbreviations: AIC—Akaike information criterion

Accepted Aug 13, 2008.


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us   Add to Digg Digg   Add to Facebook Facebook   Add to Reddit Reddit   Add to Technorati Technorati   Add to Twitter Twitter    What's this?