Case reports of sleep phenotypes of ADHD: from hypothesis to clinical practice.

OBJECTIVE: Five sleep ADHD phenotypes have been hypothesized: (a) the hypo-arousal state of the "primary" form of ADHD, (b) the sleep phase advanced disorder, (c) sleep disordered breathing (SDB), (d) restless legs syndrome and/or periodic limb movements disorder (PLMD), and (e) epilepsy.

METHOD: Five case reports are presented; each child but one underwent video-polysomnography.

RESULTS: The first case report is an example of ADHD and SDB, with improvement of hypersomnolence after resolution of sleep apnea. The second case shows the impact of delayed sleep onset latency in the pathogenesis of ADHD, and the efficacy of melatonin. The third case report describes the association with PLMD, with amelioration after iron supplementation. The other two cases are examples of ADHD and epilepsy, with clinical improvement after antiepileptic treatment was started.

CONCLUSION: A diagnostic and therapeutic algorithm should be designed to find the best first-line treatment for ADHD and sleep problems/epilepsy.