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Background: This review summarizes the literature on sleep quality in neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorder (NMOSD) and discusses these findings in the context of current knowledge of sleep physiology. Methods: A literature search was performed using Ovid MEDLINE, Embase, and Scopus from inception to September 3, 2020. All included studies reported at least one measure of sleep quality in individuals with NMOSD. Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) scores of individuals from four studies were compared with those from a data set of controls. Results: Thirteen studies (1041 persons with NMOSD) were included in the review. Disturbed sleep was demonstrated across subjective metrics based on patient surveys and objective metrics such as polysomnography. An estimated 70% of individuals with NMOSD can be classified as poor sleepers. Standardized mean difference between PSQI scores of 183 individuals with NMOSD and those of 9284 controls was 0.72 (95% CI, 0.57–0.86; P < .001). Decreased sleep quality was significantly associated with decreased quality of life and increased anxiety, depression, and disability status. Sleep disturbances in NMOSD were similar in severity to those in multiple sclerosis. Conclusions: Sleep disturbances are a major contributor to NMOSD disease burden and may arise from the disruption of sleep circuitry, in addition to physical and psychological complications. Multiple processes involved in sleep regulation may be affected, such as, but not limited to, neural circadian circuit disruption, direct effects of inflammation, aminergic projecting system abnormalities, glymphatic system impairment, and development of sleep disorders such as restless legs syndrome/sleep apnea. A better understanding of these mechanisms is necessary for developing effective therapies for NMOSD-associated sleep disturbances.

BackgroundFour ablative neurosurgical procedures are used in the treatment of refractory psychiatric illness. The long-term effects of these procedures on psychiatric symptoms across disorders has never been synthesised and meta-analysed.MethodsA preregistered systematic review was performed on studies reporting clinical results following ablative psychiatric neurosurgery. Four possible outcome measures were extracted for each study: depression, obsessive–compulsive symptoms, anxiety and clinical global impression. Effect sizes were calculated using Hedge’s g. Equipercentile linking was used to convert symptom scores to a common metric. The main outcome measures were the magnitude of improvement in depression, obsessive compulsive symptoms, anxiety and clinical global impression. The secondary outcome was a subgroup analysis comparing the magnitude of symptom changes between the four procedures.ResultsOf 943 articles, 43 studies reporting data from 1414 unique patients, were included for pooled effects estimates with a random-effects meta-analysis. Results showed that there was a large effect size for improvements in depression (g=1.27; p<0.0001), obsessive–compulsive symptoms (g=2.25; p<0.0001) and anxiety (g=1.76; p<0.0001). The pooled clinical global impression improvement score was 2.36 (p<0.0001). On subgroup analysis, there was only a significant degree of heterogeneity in effect sizes between procedure types for anxiety symptoms, with capsulotomy resulting in a greater reduction in anxiety than cingulotomy.ConclusionsContemporary ablative neurosurgical procedures were significantly associated with improvements in depression, obsessive–compulsive symptoms, anxiety and clinical global impression.PROSPERO registration numberCRD42020164784.