Psychological Medicine
- Psychological Medicine / Volume 3 / Issue 01 / February 1973, pp 18-27
- Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1973
- DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0033291700046316 (About DOI), Published online: 09 July 2009
Research Article
Relationship between sleep and growth in patients with reversible somatotropin deficiency (psychosocial dwarfism)1
Georg Wolffa1 and John Moneya2
a1 From the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Baltimore, Maryland, 21205, U.S.A.
a2 Department of Pediatrics, The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and Hospital, Baltimore, Maryland, 21205, U.S.A.
Abstract
In a partly retrospective, partly follow-up study, 27 patients aged 1 year 10 months to 16 years 2 months with reversible somatotropin deficiency, showed a relationship between the rate of statural growth and sleep, graded as good, poor, or mixed. During periods of good sleep the overall growth rate averaged 1·04 cm per month, and during periods of poor sleep it averaged 0·34 cm per month (t=8·46, df=32, P<0·001). Presumably, good growth, good sleep, and optimal nocturnal somatotropin release intercorrelate in this syndrome of dwarfism, but the data with regard to nocturnal somatotropin release remain to be demonstrated empirically.
Correspondence:
p1 Address for reprints: Phipps 400, The Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore, Maryland 21205, U.S.A.
Footnotes
1 Supported by grants from the Erickson Education Foundation, the Stiles E. Tuttle Fund, and Mrs. Marion Tuttle Colwill, and by USPHS grants HD 18635, HD 00325, HD 01852, MH 20855, and RR 00035 (GCRCP).
