Under-Recognition of Rapid Eye Movement Sleep Behavior Disorder in Younger Populations.

An under-recognized group with rapid eye movement sleep behavior disorder (RBD) includes children, adolescents, and young adults, who generally have more mild and less injurious RBD compared to middle-aged and older adults (particularly in males). Also, in contrast to older adults, the younger population with RBD rarely has idiopathic RBD but rather has symptomatic RBD from various neurological disorders, such as narcolepsy, brainstem tumors, neurodevelopmental/neuropsychiatric disorders, and also from antidepressant medication-induced RBD. Younger populations also can have parasomnia overlap disorder (RBD + NREM parasomnia) that is either idiopathic or symptomatic of a variety of clinical disorders and medication triggers.