Maladaptive behaviors are linked with inefficient sleep in individuals with developmental disabilities

The purpose of the current study was to assess the relations between nightly sleep patterns and the frequency of daily maladaptive behavior. Antecedent and consequential relations between sleep patterns and behavior were evaluated with time series analysis. Sleep efficiency and maladaptive behavior were determined for 20 female residents of an institutional care facility for adults with developmental disabilities. Daily maladaptive behavioral data and nightly sleep/awake logs were collected for 4 months for each participant. Efficient sleep patterns were significantly associated with lower frequencies of maladaptive behaviors. All lagged cross-correlations 8 days before and 8 days after an evening of sleep were significant. These findings suggested that inefficient sleep was associated with increased maladaptive behaviors and that the lagged associations reflected a chronic but not an acute linkage between sleep and behavior

Transfer of stimulus control: measuring the moment of transfer

Three severely retarded boys acquired simple form discriminations errorlessly. Each was first taught to press a red key versus a simultaneously present white key. After this discrimination had been established, black figures were superimposed on the red and white keys. Each correct response affected the next trial by delaying the onset of the red stimulus an additional 0.5 sec. Transfer of stimulus control to the figures was indicated when the subjects responded correctly before the onset of the red stimulus. A series of errorless discrimination reversals was accomplished with this technique, during which the number of trials to transfer systematically decreased with successive reversals

Sequential Analysis Reveals a Unique Structure for Self-Injurious Behavior

Conditional probability, calculated using sequential analysis techniques in four time con-ditions (2, 10, 30, and 60 seconds), provided evidence that successive episodes of self-injury were sequentially dependent. This unique distribution of sequential association for self-injurious behavior (SIB) was not related to frequency or rate of occurrence. Compared with other environmental and behavioral events, the best predictor of SIB was an earlier SIB episode, consistent with a contagious distribution. This study is one of the few in which sequential analysis techniques were applied to data derived from a large group of individuals with severe behavior disorders. It may be the first in which this analytic tool was used to investigate systematically successive occurrences of SIB as it takes place in vivo. Increasingly sophisticated sequential analysis techniques are being applied to the study of mal-adaptive behavior, often focused on social or en-vironmental variables that are proposed to main-tain self-injurious behavior (SIB). For example, Emerson, Thompson, Reeves, Henderson, and Robertson (1995) investigated functional response classes for five 11- to 21-year-old individuals with severe mental retardation and disruptive behavior. Using a time-based lag sequential analysis of be-havioral data (correcting for expected frequency), they identified positive behavioral processes in 21 of 23 observed behaviors. Using the same meth-ods, Emerson et al. (1996) observed challenging behavior of three children with mental retardation during attendance at a residential school and later analyzed the occurrence of the behavior under various conditions (e.g., demand, escape). They identified specific behavioral topographies for 8 of the 11 behaviors observed. These researchers and others (e.g., Hall, Oliver, & Murphy, 2001) intro-duced sequential analysis as a viable analytical tool for characterizing SIB and other maladaptive behaviors in this population. In a preliminary report, other authors on ou

Maladaptive behaviors are linked with inefficient sleep in individuals with developmental disabilities

The purpose of the current study was to assess the relations between nightly sleep patterns and the frequency of daily maladaptive behavior. Antecedent and consequential relations between sleep patterns and behavior were evaluated with time series analysis. Sleep efficiency and maladaptive behavior were determined for 20 female residents of an institutional care facility for adults with developmental disabilities. Daily maladaptive behavioral data and nightly sleep/awake logs were collected for 4 months for each participant. Efficient sleep patterns were significantly associated with lower frequencies of maladaptive behaviors. All lagged cross-correlations 8 days before and 8 days after an evening of sleep were significant. These findings suggested that inefficient sleep was associated with increased maladaptive behaviors and that the lagged associations reflected a chronic but not an acute linkage between sleep and behavior

The role of proopiomelanocortin (POMC) in sequentially dependent self-injurious behavior.

Self-injuring behavior (SIB) is a life-threatening behavior exhibited by many species, including humans, and has no known cause and no agreed upon treatment. The role of the stress axis in the maintenance of this mysterious behavior was examined in subjects with life-long SIB. Over a 6-year period, 40 hr of direct observations of behavior and the environment were recorded on palmtop computers while 36 residential subjects (28 target and 8 control subjects) conducted their daily activities. Blood samples were collected in morning and evening for all subjects and within minutes after a self-injuring act in 28 target subjects who exhibited SIB to determine levels of ACTH and B-endorphin (BE). Self-injuring events in the patient group were significantly sequentially dependent (i.e., the only predictor of a self-injuring act was an antecedent self-injuring act). Higher morning levels of BE relative to ACTH predicted [r(df=27) = .57, p < .001] the sequentially dependent pattern of SIB. This effect was validated in a subgroup retested several months later [r(df=22) = .60, p < .001]. A subgroup of seven subjects exhibiting sequentially dependent patterns were administered an opiate blocker (naltrexone) in a double-blind, crossover design with an additional 14 hr/week of observation for 7 weeks. Naltrexone challenge interrupted the sequential pattern (improved behavior) in subjects with elevated BE immediately following SIB (r = .85, p < .01). The pattern of results supported the conclusion that the stress axis played a significant role in the maintenance of complex episodes of self-injury

Temporal patterns of self-injurious behavior correlate with stress hormone levels in the developmentally disabled

While the origins and developmental course of self-injurious behavior (SIB) remain relatively unknown, recent studies suggest a biological imbalance may potentiate or provoke the contagious recurrence of SIB patterns in individuals with severe developmental disabilities (DID). Evidence from several laboratories indicates that functioning, relations, and processing of a stress-related molecule, proopiomelanocortin (POMC) may be perturbed among certain subgroups of individuals exhibiting SIB. The current investigation employed a unique time-pattern analysis program (THEME) to examine whether recurrent temporal patterns (T-patterns) of SIB were related to morning levels of two POMC-derived hormones: beta-endorphin (beta E) and adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH). THEME was used to quantify highly significant (non-random) T-patterns that included SIB within a dataset of in situ observational recordings spanning 8 days (similar to 40 h) in 25 subjects with DD. Pearson's product-moment analyses revealed highly significant correlations between the percentage of T-patterns containing SIB and basal levels of both beta E and ACTH, which were not found with any other "control" T-patterns. These findings support the hypothesis that the recurrent temporal patterning of SIB represents a unique behavioral phenotype directly related to perturbed levels of POMC-derived stress hormones in certain individuals with severe DD. (c) 2007 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved