Sleep Disorders in Rheumatic Diseases: A Wake-Up Call

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The prevalence of sleep disorders in patients with chronic conditions, such as rheumatoid arthritis (RA), is common. Research suggests an association may exist between sleep disorders and rheumatic diseases; however, this relationship is still not well established.

In this episode, in collaboration with Neurology Advisor, rheumatologists Patricia Katz and Alfred Kim, and neurologist Daniel Barone, discuss the relationship between sleep disorders in rheumatic diseases, including risk factors for sleep disorders, the manifestation of these sleep disorders, and how these specialties can work together to improve diagnosis and care for this patient population.

Read the full transcript here.

Patricia Katz, MD, is a professor of medicine and health policy at the University of California, San Francisco. She is the current co-editor-in-chief of ACR Open Rheumatology. Dr Katz previously served as the editor-in-chief of Arthritis Care & Research, where she edited 3 volumes, in which the outcome measures for rheumatology were reviewed.

Her research has focused on the measurement of patient-centered outcomes and the impact of lifestyle factors, such as sleep and physical inactivity, on clinical and patient-centered outcomes.

Dr Katz is the author of more than 300 publications. In addition, she has received numerous grants, including from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the Department of Defense Lupus Program, and the Rheumatology Research Foundation (RRF), and other grants that focus on sleep in RA and lupus.

Alfred Kim, MD, is an assistant professor of medicine at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, Missouri, and the co-director of the Washington University Lupus Clinic. He is also the director of the Biobanking and Phenotyping Core at the NIH/NIAMS P30-funded Rheumatic Diseases Research Resource-based center and faculty scholar at the Institute of Public Health at Washington University. He is also the chief medical officer at Kypha, Inc.

Dr Kim runs a research group that focuses on translational and clinical questions centered on human systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE).

He serves on the scientific advisory council at the Rheumatology Research

Foundation, OMERACT SLE Working Group, Lupus Nephritis Trials Network (LNTN),

Lupus Clinical Investigator Network (LuCIN), and Clinical and Scientific Committee of

the COVID-19 Global Rheumatology Alliance. He is a co-investigator for the Lupus

Research Alliance’s Lupus Nexus study.

Daniel Barone, MD, is the associate medical director of the Weill Cornell Center for Sleep Medicine in New York City, an associate professor of clinical neurology at Weill Cornell Medical College, and an attending neurologist at New York-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center.

He specializes in the evaluation and management of patients with all forms of sleep disorders including sleep apnea, restless legs syndrome, insomnia, and narcolepsy.

Dr Barone is certified by the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology in both neurology and sleep medicine. He is a member of the American Academy of Neurology, and is a fellow of both the American Academy of Sleep Medicine and the American Neurological Association.

He is also the author of Let’s Talk About Sleep and The Story of Sleep: From A to Zzz.