An increase in nightmares, ‘daymares’ and hallucinations could be an early warning sign of an autoimmune disease, researchers find.
A team of scientists argue they can act as a warning an individual will experience worsened symptoms.
In a study, conducted by University of Cambridge and King’s College London, 676 people living with autoimmune disease lupus and 400 clinicians were surveyed regarding symptoms, from nightmares and depression to loss of balance.
They were also asked to order the symptoms when they occurred at times they approached a ‘flare’ – where symptoms grow worse for a period.
Lupus is an autoimmune inflammatory disease that effects several organs.
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Researchers asked patients about 29 neurological and mental health symptoms, and one of the most commonly reported was disrupted dream sleep (3 in 5 patients), with a third of respondents said they noticed this symptom a year before onset of lupus.
Just under one in four patients reported hallucinations, but 85% noted they appeared during diagnosis or later. Common themes over the nightmares, for those who had an autoimmune disease, included being trapped, crushed, attacked or falling.
One person said they were ‘horrific’, believing the more ‘stress’ her body underwent, the more vivd they would be.
Lead author Dr Melanie Sloan, from the Department of Public Health and Primary Care at the University of Cambridge, said: “It’s important that clinicians talk to their patients about these types of symptoms and spend time writing down each patient’s individual progression of symptoms.
“Patients often know which symptoms are a bad sign that their disease is about to flare, but both patients and doctors can be reluctant to discuss mental health and neurological symptoms, particularly if they don’t realise that these can be a part of autoimmune diseases.”
Senior study author Professor David D’Cruz from Kings College London added: “For many years, I have discussed nightmares with my lupus patients and thought that there was a link with their disease activity.
“This research provides evidence of this, and we are strongly encouraging more doctors to ask about nightmares and other neuropsychiatric symptoms – thought to be unusual, but actually very common in systemic autoimmunity – to help us detect disease flares earlier.”
The research was funded by The Lupus Trust, part of the INSPIRE project.
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