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Article: Treating sleep terrors in children.(Literature Review & Commentary)
- Article from:
- Townsend Letter for Doctors and Patients
- Article date:
- May 1, 2005
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2005 The Townsend Letter Group. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Forty-five children (mean age, 7.3 years; range, 3.2-10.6 years) experiencing a mean of 6.6 sleep terror episodes per month were randomly assigned to receive L-5-hydroxytryptophan (5-HTP) (n = 31) or to serve as an untreated control group (n = 14). The dose of 5-HTP was 2 mg/kg of body weight at bedtime for 20 days. At the one-month follow-up visit, the sleep terrors had completely disappeared in 51.6% of the children receiving 5-HTP, and there was a greater-than-50% reduction in an additional 41.9% of cases, for a positive response rate of 93.5%. In the control group, the episodes disappeared in 28.6%, while 71.4% showed no change. After 6 months, 83.9% of children ...