Sleep and Psychiatric Disorders in Children and Adolescents PDF

Preface

This volume provides the first rigorous attempt to integrate our current knowledge on sleep, emotional, and behavioral development in children and adolescents. Pediatric sleep medicine has made significant progress from the first description of sleep states in newborns in the mid-1960s, to an almost distinct clinical discipline that offers a comprehensive assessment and treatment of children with a wide array of sleep and circadian disorders in the context of their neurobehavioral, emotional, and cognitive development.

In the past two decades, there have been a growing number of research studies exploring sleep characteristics in children with various psychiatric disorders as well as investigating the impact of primary sleep disorders on the neurocognitive, behavioral, and affective development in children. This book explores and defines the complex relationship between the field of sleep medicine and child psychiatry in a cogent synthesis of prevalence, etiology, assessment, and treatment.

The book is written for a large audience of clinical professionals involved in caring for children and adolescents, especially mental health professionals, general pediatricians, child neurologists, and sleep specialists with an interest in pediatric aspects of sleep medicine.

I would like to acknowledge an outstanding panel of authors that made this book project possible. They conducted state-of-the-art research on every aspect of pediatric sleep development, providing readers with detailed overview of biological, psychological, socio-cultural and pharmacological aspects of pediatric sleep and its interface with psychiatric pathology in children and adolescents.

Although there are many areas of pediatric sleep medicine and child psychiatry that still remain controversial and not very well defined, evaluation and treatment of pediatric sleep problems present a pressing need for thousands of clinicians and millions of parents. This book serves to provide guidance and to disseminate information regarding accurate assessment, pathophysiology, and effective treatments to practitioners faced with the challenges to help children and their families achieve a better night's sleep.