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Snurken bij peuters
indicatie op ADHD later.*
Uit wetenschappelijk
onderzoek volgt een harder bewijs dat er een relatie is tussen snurken bij
peuters en het ontstaan van aandachtsproblemen en overactiviteit later.
Vermoedelijk is het niet goed slapen door het snurken de oorzaak voor de
problemen.
Belangrijk is dus
aandacht te schenken aan dit snurken en dit proberen met een specialist aan te
pakken.
Snoring Can Predict Kids' Hyperactivity
New research provides even stronger evidence of the
link.
--Experts have known that children who snore may be far more likely to
have problems with attention and hyperactivity than kids who
don't.
Now, new research from the University of Michigan suggests the link is
even stronger than many thought. "The association is pretty strong, and we
are saying it may be causal," said Dr. Ronald D. Chervin, director of the
university's Sleep Disorders Center. "The sleep disruption itself
may lead to hyperactivity."
Chervin and his colleagues from both the University of Michigan and the
University of Washington evaluated 229 children, who were aged 6 to 17 at the
time of the study. They were drawn from a group of 866 2- to 13-year-olds whose
parents were surveyed originally in the late 1990s in the waiting rooms of
pediatric clinics. The parents of 229 children returned the follow-up survey
four years later.
Of the 229, 30 children were rated as hyperactive. And that hyperactivity
was predicted by the habitual or loud snoring, sleepiness or
sleep-disordered breathing in the original survey done four years before, the
researchers found.
>Snoring and other sleep problems, Chervin and his colleagues
concluded, "are strong risk factors for future emergence or exacerbation of
hyperactive behavior."
The new study, Chervin said, is the first long-term look at the
association. Children in the original study who snored regularly were about four
times as likely to have developed new hyperactivity by the time the survey was
done four years later. Snoring early in their lives predicted the children's new
or worsened behavior problems four years later.
Exactly how the snoring may lead to the hyperactivity is not
clear.
"One of the reasons could be the oxygen levels during the night are
lowered repeatedly, every time the throat closes," Chervin said. At least
in animal studies, he said, lowered oxygen brings about behavior changes.
Or, the sleep disruption may lead directly to the hyperactivity, Chervin
added.
Adults who are sleep-deprived just look very sleepy, he said. "Kids
may stay awake at any cost, including creating an environment that helps them
stay awake at any cost," he added
On the survey, parents were asked how often and how severely their child
snored, and if the child had a tendency to struggle to breathe or stop breathing
temporarily during the night, or had a hard time waking up. They were also asked
about their child's behavior during the day, and whether there were attention
problems.
Another expert, Dr. Ann Halbower, medical director of the Pediatric Sleep
Disorders Program at Johns Hopkins University Children's Center, said the new
research makes the long-suspected link between snoring and hyperactivity
"sound much more causal."
"It still isn't proof," she said. But the new research at least
is strongly suggestive of a cause-and-effect between snoring and hyperactivity,
she said.
However, as Halbower pointed out, there could be yet another explanation,
such as an underlying problem that leads to both the snoring and the
hyperactivity.
Until more is known, Chervin said, he urges parents to take their
children's sleep problems seriously and to describe them to the child's
pediatrician.
The most common treatment to stop the snoring is removal of the tonsils
and the nearby adenoids, he said.
Halbower agreed that parents should be alert to chiildren's sleeping
problems. "Parents should be aware that snoring is not a good thing,"
she said. It has been linked to poor school performance and other problems.
(Juli 2005)