Jactatio capitis nocturna with persistence in adulthood: case report

• Autor(a) principal: Alves, Rosana S.c.
• Data de Publicação: 1998
• Outros Autores: AlÓe, FlÁvio, Silva, Ademir B. [UNIFESP], Tavares, Stella M.
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Institucional da UNIFESP
• Texto Completo: http://dx.doi.org/10.1590/S0004-282X1998000400022; http://repositorio.unifesp.br/handle/11600/661
• topic: rhythmic movement disorder; parasomnia; jactatio capitis nocturna; headbanging; distúrbio rítmico do movimento; jactatio capitis nocturna; parassonia

Rhythmic movement disorder, also known as jactatio capitis nocturna, is an infancy and childhood sleep-related disorder charactherized by repetitive movements occurring immediately prior to sleep onset and sustained into light sleep. We report a 19-year-old man with a history of headbanging and repetitive bodyrocking since infancy, occurring on a daily basis at sleep onset. He was born a premature baby but psychomotor milestones were unremarkable. Physical and neurological diagnostic workups were unremarkable. A hospital-based sleep study showed: total sleep time: 178 min; sleep efficiency index 35.8; sleep latency 65 min; REM latency 189 min. There were no respiratory events and head movements occurred at 4/min during wakefulness, stages 1 and 2 NREM sleep. No tonic or phasic electromyographic abnormalities were recorded during REM sleep. A clinical diagnosis of rhythmic movement disorder was performed on the basis of the clinical and sleep studies data. Clonazepam (0.5 mg/day) and midazolam (15 mg/day) yielded no clinical improvement. Imipramine (10 mg/day) produced good clinical outcome. In summary, we report a RMD case with atypical clinical and therapeutical features.