Poor sleep quality is considered to be a common factor in psychiatric disorders. A ‘sleep laboratory’ that has begun functioning at the Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (IMHANS), Kozhikode, is doing research on the patterns of sleep deficit.
One in seven individuals is believed to have psychiatric disorders in India. The increased prevalence is observed in States such as Kerala with a high socio-demographic index. Sources in IMHANS said that unlike other diseases, psychiatric disorders are heterogeneous and complex, making clinical management extremely difficult. Understanding the clinical, biological, psychological and sociological determinants of such disorders is essential for deciding effective treatment strategies. Understanding the pattern of sleep deficit would help devise strategies to treat psychiatric disorders by managing sleep, they said.
Scientists at IMHANS claimed that the prevalence of sleep disorders in the general population was also on the rise in Kerala. The pattern of sleep deficit in psychiatric disorders, however, is largely unknown. The sleep lab at the Centre for Interdisciplinary Brain Sciences at IMHANS can record and evaluate a patient’s sleep using a technology called polysomnography. The data obtained will enable doctors to devise tailored treatment strategies for schizophrenia by managing sleep deficit.
The sources said the research would address the fundamental and translational research questions in psychiatric and neurodevelopmental disorders. Interdisciplinary approaches will be employed with experts from the fields of psychiatry, neurology, psychology, computer science, biostatistics, cell biology, molecular biology, and genetics within IMHANS and outside to address research questions pertaining to the biological basis of behaviour and disorders.
Some sanctioned and ongoing research works at IMHANS are on the mechanistic role of sleep quality for elevated cellular stress in schizophrenia, understanding the genetic architecture of sleep deficit in attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, and the genetic characterisation of inherited somniloquy or sleep talking.
