Sleep Medicine Reviews
Volume 4, Issue 4 , Pages 321-339, August 2000

Parasomnias: sleepwalking and the law☆

Minnesota Regional Sleep Disorders Center, and Departments of Psychiatry (CHS) and Neurology (MWM), Hennepin County Medical Center and the University of Minnesota Medical School, Minneapolis, MN, USA

Received, accepted

Abstract 

A recent, well-publicized case in which murder during sleepwalking was offered as a defense, underscores the fact that sleep medicine specialists are asked to render opinions or judgements regarding culpability in legal cases regarding violence claimed to have arisen from sleepwalking episodes. This review addresses this difficult issue from scientific, clinical and legal aspects, with emphasis upon the need for further research, calling for close collaboration between the legal and medical (both clinical and basic science) professions.

Keywords: parasomnias, sleepwalking, sleep terrors, REM sleep behavior disorder, nocturnal seizures, forensic.

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☆ Correspondence to be addressed to: Mark W. Mahowald, MD, Minnesota Regional Sleep Disorders Center, Hennepin County Medical Center, 701 Park AveMinneapolis, MN 55415, USA. Fax: +612-904-4207; E-mail: mahow002@maroon.tc.umn.edu

PII: S1087-0792(99)90078-3

doi:10.1053/smrv.1999.0078

Sleep Medicine Reviews
Volume 4, Issue 4 , Pages 321-339, August 2000

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