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Objectives: The Pupillographic Sleepiness Test (PST) measures the level of alertness based on spontaneous oscillations in pupillary size. Reference data are available for male and female adults within the age range 20-60 years. The aim of the present multicenter study was to extend the age range for reference data from 20 to 79 years., Methods: A total of 239 healthy subjects, selected from three different centers (Berlin, Regensburg, and Vienna), were administered the PST. Data were analyzed with respect to possible effects of age, gender, and time of day on the pupillary unrest index (PUI) and the pupil diameter (PD)., Results: Reliable data were available in 85.8% of the entire study sample and in 82.4% of elderly subjects (60+ years). Age-related changes were identified for the PUI and PD. There was no effect of gender on pupillometric variables as revealed by univariate analysis. The PD was found to be smaller in the afternoon compared with the morning. However, if subjects aged 60+ years were excluded from the analyses, the age-related changes disappeared and a time-of-day effect regarding the PUI became apparent., Conclusions: PUI and PD were found to decrease with increasing age. In addition, the present data show that nonreliable PST data occur more frequently in the elderly probably because of dry eyes, inadequate testing conditions, and technical resolution limitations. Thus, the PST results obtained here from elderly subjects are limited and have to be interpreted with caution. Additional research on elderly specific assessment tools is needed., (Copyright © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.)

Objectives: To acquire current information on sleep habits, disturbances and treatment options in the adult population of Austria and compare results with previously collected data., Materials and Methods: A representative sample of the Austrian population (women: n = 522, men: n = 478)., Results: Seventy-five percent reported daily sleep-duration between 6 and 8 h. In 76%, sleep latency was <30 min, 15% described difficulties in sleep maintenance. Longer sleep on weekends was prevalent in 54%, 23% took a nap. Concerning sleep environment, 31% reported sleeping alone; the rest had a constant or occasional bed partner. Sleep disturbances such as sleep disruption or prolonged sleep latency were reported by 18%. Predominant symptoms included snoring/apneas (22%), nightmares (22%) and restless legs (21%). Daytime tiredness was reported by 17% and sleepiness by 20%. Twenty-four percent did not take treatment. Only 7% asked for medical help: 96% consulted their physician; 47% tried to change their way of living. Sleep promoting drugs were taken by 7%. Sleep improving measures were: sleep promoters (45%), general measures (20%), consultation of general practitioner (20%), psychotherapy (6%), and technical tools (3%). Comparison with a dataset of 1993 revealed only a slight increase in short sleepers and a slight decrease in long sleepers., Conclusions: Subjectively reported sleep disorders proved to be relatively stable between 1993 and 2007., (Copyright © 2010 The Authors. Journal compilation © 2010 Blackwell Munksgaard.)

The aim of this paper was to assess the prevalence of morning headaches in the Austrian general population and to analyse their relationship to daytime functioning and quality of sleep. In a nationwide survey, we recruited 1000 adults (478 men, 522 women, age over 14 years). For this study, we selected all subjects with self-reported morning headaches as well as controls matched for age, sex, size of hometown, level of education and marital status. Forty-eight persons reported morning headaches making a prevalence of 5% in the Austrian general population. Compared to controls, subjects with morning headaches reported more often daytime sleepiness (50% vs. 18.8%, p = 0.003), difficulties in staying awake (47.9% vs. 18.8%, p = 0.005) and falling asleep involuntarily (29.2% vs. 8.3%, p = 0.019). Moreover, they reported a longer sleep onset latency (26.5 ± 27.5 vs. 13.5 ± 13.5 min, p = 0.005), and more often sleep disturbances (58.3% vs. 14.6%, p < 0.001), tossing and turning around during the night (50.0% vs. 8.0%, p < 0.001), problems with sleep maintenance (64.6% vs. 22.9%, p < 0.001) and the symptom of restless legs (20.8% vs. 2.1%, p = 0.01). In addition, subjects with morning headaches felt less often refreshed in the morning (18% vs. 51%, p < 0.001) and reported regular use of medication more often (64.6% vs. 29.2%, p = 0.001) than controls. After correction for multiple testing, the differences in sleep maintenance, sleep disturbances and regular use of medication remained statistically significant. In conclusion, this is the first Austrian population-based controlled study to show that morning headaches afflict one out of 20 persons and are related to self-reported sleep problems.

Background: Restless legs syndrome (RLS) is a movement and sleep disorder with leg dysesthesias with a high prevalence (9-18% in Austria)., Aim of the Study: Determination of frequency, diagnosis and therapy of RLS in general practitioner and specialist offices., Methods: Telephone survey of a random sample of 120 general practitioners, 100 neurologists and 80 specialists in internal medicine., Results: 69% of the whole sample of doctors reported seeing 1 to 10 RLS patients, but in proportion to the prevalence of these two conditions fewer cases of RLS than of Parkinson's disease are treated. In all three groups of doctors, 84% consider the 4 key symptoms (urge to move the legs accompanied or caused by dysesthesia; worsening of symptoms at rest or inactivity; relief by activity; worsening of symptoms in the evening/at night) the most important diagnostic criteria for RLS, followed by a complaint of disturbed sleep (75%), daytime tiredness (43%) and dopaminergic responsiveness in a therapeutic trial (29%). 83% of general practitioners and 86% of medical specialists refer their RLS patients to a neurologist, 19% to a polysomnographic examination. 75% of doctors decide for pharmacological treatment of RLS, 18% for psychotherapy, 15% for household remedies. 54% of all doctors (70% of the neurologists, 68% of the GPs, 48% of the medical specialists) prescribe dopamine agonists. L-Dopa is used by 49% (61% of the neurologists, 42% of the GPs, 44% of the medical specialists). 17% prescribe GABAergic drugs, 6% opiates. 51% would be highly interested in obtaining a drug specifically registered for the treatment of RLS., Conclusion: RLS is not as well known as Parkinson's disease. Thus providing doctors with relevant information and further education programs on this subject seems desirable. In Austrian doctors' offices the diagnosis of RLS is usually obtained clinically on the basis of the 4 key symptoms. Patients suffering from insomnia of multifactorial pathogenesis should be referred to an outpatient clinic for sleep disorders with an associated sleep laboratory. Especially neurologists and GPs consider dopamine agonists the treatment of first choice, closely followed by L-Dopa.

Study Objective: To assess period and point prevalence of headache in Austria and the influence of sociodemographic factors and seasonal variations., Design: Data for the prevalence of headache were drawn from the database of seven representative surveys in the SERMO study (Self-Reported Morbidity Study). The aims of the SERMO study are to describe and monitor the characteristics of background morbidity in the Austrian population. The study is based on face-to-face interviews. Headache/migraine was one of 36 disorders the interviewed persons were asked about., Setting: The representative samples of the Austrian general population were selected by the "quota-procedure". Thus each cross sectional sample is representative for the entire Austrian population., Participants: The study population consisted of 7,162 Austrian people over 15 years of age., Results: About one fifth (20.1%) of the Austrian adult population reported having headaches during the year (prevalence 26.4% in women vs. 13.0% in men, p<0.001). Period prevalences varied from 19.6% in August to 23.1% in October 1995. Mean point prevalence in the general population was 5.7% (3.6% in men vs. 7.7% in women, p<0.001). The highest point prevalence (8.0%) was observed among people over 60. Whereas period prevalence showed no trend with age or education, we found increasing point prevalence with age and lower levels of education. In general, significantly more people with self-reported headache suffered from stress (39.1% vs. 33.7%, p<0.001) and chronic diseases (33.6% vs. 23.2%, p<0.001) and took drugs regularly (all kinds of medication: 44.3% vs. 26.8%, p<0.001)., Conclusions: Headache is one of the most commonly experienced symptoms in Austria. The most common concomitant disease in the study population as a whole was hypertension. People with headache had a higher prevalence of hypertension, rheumatic diseases, venous diseases, diabetes and a higher consumption of drugs. Therefore, headache, as one aspect of multimorbidity or a symptom of other diseases, could be an indicator of impaired well-being and poor health.