Sleep, Discipline and Childhood Behavioral Disorders

A couple of news stories about some new “studies” recently caught my eye. They illustrate the downright ungodly lengths certain segments of the mental health industry, as well as dope-dealing drug companies like Shire Pharmaceuticals, will go to distract both the field and the public from the real cause of many childhood behavioral problems: family interactions. They do so in order to justify their mostly ineffective and potentially toxic treatments. 

The stories were:

1    1. Poor Childhood Sleep May Lead to Behavior Woes in Adolescence by Molly Walker, Staff Writer, MedPage Today, December 04, 2017: Study suggests bidirectional association for some problems

“Young children who had greater sleep problems were more likely to have certain types of behavioral problems years later, Australian researchers found…There was a bidirectional association between sleep problems and externalizing difficulties, such as attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder, oppositional defiant disorder, and conduct disorder, in children when measured at particular time points through early adolescence, reported Jon L. Quach, PhD, of the University of Melbourne in Australia…Quach's group said that the directionality of the associations between sleep problems in children and later behavioral problems are "poorly understood," but argued that "addressing this knowledge gap will provide valuable information to inform the focus and timing of interventions aiming to improve children's sleep and behavior during the elementary school years...Sleep problems were defined by parent report. 

Of course they relied on parental reporting - to make use of parental denial to the maximum extent possible. 

“The directionality of the associations between sleep problems in children and later behavioral problems are ‘poorly understood?’” Poorly understood, my ass. See below.

       2.  ADHD and insomnia appear intertwined By: Bruce Jancin, Clinical Psychiatry News, November 30, 2017  (http://www.mdedge.com/clinicalpsychiatrynews/article/153175/adhd/adhd-and-insomnia-appear-intertwined?oc_slh=b7663e08a51cd61023636ca0354888a37f5bd7dbaf016b90aac8a66134946998&channel=296&utm_source=News_CPN_eNL_120417_F&utm_medium=email&utm_content=Self-harm+on+rise+in+U.S.+among+this+group)

“Converging evidence suggests that attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder and sleep difficulties share a common underlying etiology involving circadian rhythm disturbance, J.J. Sandra Kooij, MD, PhD, declared at the annual congress of the European College of Neuropsychopharmacology…Having built the case for circadian disruption as an underlying cause of both ADHD symptoms and the commonly comorbid sleep problems…Multiple studies have shown that roughly 75% of children and adults with ADHD have sleep-onset insomnia.”

Shared etiology for sleep problems and certain childhood behavioral disorders like ADHD? Well, duh. Both are caused by parents who don't know how to discipline their kids. In the case of ADHD, they let them stay up half the night playing video games. And then the kids are too sleepy to concentrate the next day. 

This sleep pattern leads to the circadian rhythm disturbances (getting days and nights mixed up, in a way) described by Kooij. Of course, the discipline problems in the houses of these kids are hardly limited to bedtime. Inconsistent, abusive, and/or just plain absent discipline lead to children acting out. You know, “oppositional defiant disorder” and “conduct disorder.” Like I said, acting out.