Jactatio capitis nocturna with persistence in adulthood: case report

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.

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: ALVES,ROSANA S.C., ALÓE,FLÁVIO, SILVA,ADEMIR B., TAVARES,STELLA M.
Format: Digital revista
Language:English
Published: Academia Brasileira de Neurologia - ABNEURO 1998
Online Access:http://old.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0004-282X1998000400022
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Description
Summary: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.