A new study has found that children who have their tonsils removed behave and sleep better after the surgery.
The study, led by Ronald Chervin, M.D., M.S., director of the U-M Sleep Disorders Center and co-leader of the U-M Center for Sleep Science, also found that hyperactivity, attention deficit, sleepiness, and Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) often improved.
On the whole, the 78 children who had tonsillectomy were much more likely than a comparison group of 27 children to have had behaviour and sleep apnea at the start of the study. But by the end of the study, tests showed little difference between the two groups.
Dr Chervin said that the findings of the study supported the idea that sleep-disordered breathing is actually helping to cause behavioural problems in children.
“These findings help support the idea that sleep-disordered breathing is actually helping to cause behavioural problems in children, and making them sleepy,” he said.
“This is one of the first studies to document, using gold-standard measures, that all of these sleep and behavior problems tend to resolve one year after enlarged tonsils and adenoids are removed,” he added.
And while the researchers caution that their results do not yet prove cause and effect, and that tonsillectomy is not usually a “cure” for ADHD, they say, the growing body of evidence on this issue suggests that a significant number of children with inattention, hyperactivity, or sleepiness during the day – and also sleep-breathing problems at night – may benefit during both the night and day by tonsillectomy.
{{/usCountry}}And while the researchers caution that their results do not yet prove cause and effect, and that tonsillectomy is not usually a “cure” for ADHD, they say, the growing body of evidence on this issue suggests that a significant number of children with inattention, hyperactivity, or sleepiness during the day – and also sleep-breathing problems at night – may benefit during both the night and day by tonsillectomy.
{{/usCountry}}The study is published in the online April issue of the journal Pediatrics.