Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2017 Apr 12:9:109-115.
doi: 10.2147/NSS.S128513. eCollection 2017.

Sleep disturbance linked to suicidal ideation in postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome

Cathy Lynn Pederson  1 , Jill Blettner Brook  2
Affiliations

Sleep disturbance linked to suicidal ideation in postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome

Cathy Lynn Pederson et al. Nat Sci Sleep. .

Abstract

Objective: We investigated the prevalence of suicidal ideation in relationship with symptoms of sleep disruption in people with postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS).

Methods: Online surveys (including the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index and the Suicide Behaviors Questionnaire - Revised) were completed by 705 POTS patients and 170 non-POTS controls.

Results: Poor sleep quality was reported in 98.4% of POTS patients with a calculated subjective sleep efficiency of 65.4%. The POTS group's sleep efficiency was significantly lower (t[873]= -11.32; p<0.001) and sleep disturbances because of pain were significantly higher (t[873]=15.36; p<0.001) than controls. Chi-square testing showed a larger proportion of individuals at high-risk for suicide among POTS patients than controls (c2 [1, n=875]=55.6; p<0.001). Multiple linear regression analysis showed that sleep scores (β=0.23, p<0.001), age (β=-0.03, p<0.001), and illness with POTS (β=0.68, p=0.05) were significantly associated with suicide ideation scores (F[4, 870]=38.34, p<0.001). This model explained 15% of variance (R2=0.15) in suicidal ideation scores.

Conclusion: Patients with POTS may suffer from increased sleep disturbance and suicidal ideation compared with the general population. Treatment to improve sleep efficiency and sleep quality is an important step toward better quality of life for POTS patients.

Keywords: POTS; insomnia; postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome; sleep; suicidal ideation; suicide.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Disclosure The authors report no conflicts of interest in this work.

Comment in

References

    1. Thieben MJ, Sandroni P, Sletten DM, et al. Postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome: the Mayo clinic experience. Mayo Clinic Proc. 2007;82(3):308–313. - PubMed
    1. Anderson JW, Lambert EA, Sari CI, et al. Cognitive function, health-related quality of life, and symptoms of depression and anxiety sensitivity are impaired in patients with the postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS) Front Physiol. 2014;5:1–9. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Benrud-Larson LM, Dewar MS, Sandroni P, Rummans TA, Haythornthwaite JA, Low PA. Quality of life in patients with postural tachycardia syndrome. Mayo Clinic Proc. 2002;77:531–537. - PubMed
    1. Benarroch EE. Postural tachycardia syndrome: a heterogeneous and multifactorial disorder. Mayo Clinic Proc. 2012;87(12):1214–1225. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Bagai K, Wakwe CI, Malow B, et al. Estimation of sleep disturbances using wrist actigraphy in patients with postural tachycardia syndrome. Auton Neurosci. 2013;177:260–265. - PMC - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources