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SYMPTOMS | PATHOMECHANISMS | HISTORY

Symptoms

Transitory aura symptoms

Visual illusions

Visual loss

Persistent aura symptoms

Psychological experience

Author: Klaus Podoll	08. June 2007
Edited by: Klaus Podoll

Sleepwalking

Sleepwalking, or somnambulism, is a common arousal disorder that is especially prevalent among children. Sleepwalkers (somnambulists) are aroused out of their deep sleep during motor activity, which usually includes, but is not limited to, walking. Sleepwalkers are usually unaware of their activity. Sleepwalking poses no serious health threat to those who experience it, although the risk of injury, however minor, is a matter of concern.

Based on a sample of 222 children from four diagnostic groups, Barabas et al. (1983) reported a high frequency of somnambulism in children suffering from migraine headache. The strength of the association between somnambulism and childhood migraine raises the possibility that somnambulism might be considered as a minor diagnostic criterion in the clinical diagnosis of childhood migraine.

Similarly, Giroud et al. (1987) looked for frequency of somnambulism in 3 homogeneous groups of children, a first group of migrainous children, a second group of epileptic children and a third group of healthy children. The authors have observed that an antecedent of somnambulism existed in 28% of migrainous children, when it was found in only 6% of epileptic children, and in 5% of the neurologically unaffected children. This significant difference demonstrates that the association of migraine and somnambulism is real. The possibility that migraine and somnambulism appearing in the same patient at different ages might be the expression of a same neurochemical disorder is discussed. The practical interest to know this association is that somnambulism may be a real clinical marker of migrainous background that should be searched for in every patient presenting with chronic cephalalgia.

References

Barabas G, Ferrari M, Matthews W. Childhood migraine and somnambulism. Neurology 1983; 33: 948-949.
Giroud M, Nivelon JL, Dumas R. Somnambulisme et migraine chez l'enfant. Une association non fortuite. [Somnambulism and migraine in children. A non-fortuitous association.] Archives Francaises de Pediatrie 1987; 44: 263-265.

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