[Drug-induced sleep disorders].

Drug-induced sleep disorders are classified into the following subtypes: a) insomnia, b) hypersomnia, c) pathological sleep d) others, those caused by medicine which can effect on circadian rhythm or sleep apnea. This paper described the relationship between several medical agents (neuroleptics, anti-depressants, anti-anxietics, anti-convulsants, psychostimulants, and drugs other than CNS-effective agents) and those effect on sleep and sleep stages. In the medicated patients, medical drugs are mainly responsible for their insomnia. However, it is sometimes difficult to find these drugs. The pathological sleep (i.e., delirium) are often developed following the drug-induced insomnia. Medication against insomnia (i.e., benzodiazepines) often exacerbates the pathological sleep. Therefore, common types of insomnia, drug-induced insomnia and pathological sleep should carefully be discriminated. Drug-induced rhythm-disorders and drug-induced sleep apnea remain to be studied. Future studies may clarify the effects of several drugs on these two disorders.