Study: Teens who have unstable sleep patterns at risk for mental disorders

By Staff Writer

Teenagers who have disrupted sleep patterns may be at risk of developing depression, bipolar disorder or psychosis, a recent study says.

According to the Sydney Morning Herald, researchers found that teenagers with mood disorders typically experience sleep problems in the days, weeks or years before they are diagnosed. The study offers hope that doctors can help identify these problems in adolescents before an illness becomes severely disruptive to a child's life.

The director of the sleep unit that conducted the study, Naomi Rogers, said that most teenagers have disrupted circadian rhythms and sleep-wake patterns because their brains are still maturing. Individuals who have mood disorders will regularly struggle to accumulate a healthy amount of rest.

One problem that researchers discovered is that many disorders share symptoms, which can make an accurate diagnosis difficult in the early stages. If bipolar disorder is misdiagnosed as depression or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), the medications may trigger manic thoughts in a patient.

According to PBS, approximately 4 percent of adolescents develop serious depression each year.