The American Academy of Sleep Medicine presents a webcast on REM Sleep Behavior Disorder (RBD). RBD is parasomnia characterized by dream enactment in the context of loss of physiological atonia during REM sleep. RBD is of particular importance to sleep medicine, neurology, and neurosciences as it is one of the earliest manifestations of α-synuclein related neurodegeneration. The majority of patients with isolated RBD eventually develop Parkinson’s disease, dementia with Lewy bodies, or multiple system atrophy. Part 1 will highlight clinical aspects of the disorder, its diagnosis, pathophysiology, and treatment.

Upon completion of this activity, participants will be able to: 

• Recognize clinical characteristics, diagnosis, differential diagnosis, and treatment of RBD 

Miranda M. Lim, MD, PhD

Dr. Lim is an associate professor in neurology at Oregon Health & Science University and a staff neurologist and research investigator at the VA Portland Health Care System. She completed fellowship training in sleep medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, pursuing postdoctoral research that identified a novel dietary therapy for the treatment of sleep-wake disturbances following mild traumatic brain injury (TBI), and she was awarded the Sleep Research Society Young Investigator Award for this work. Dr. Lim is currently supported by VA, DoD, NSF, and NIH to perform translational sleep research on rodent models and human subjects.

Elena Antelmi, MD, PhD

Dr. Antelmi is an assistant professor in the Parkinson Disease and Movement Disorders Division at the University of Verona in Italy. Dr. Antelmi’s main fields of clinical and scientific interest are sleep medicine and movement disorders. Her research is mainly focused on prodromal synucleinopathy and particularly on REM sleep behavior disorder and biomarkers of phenoconversions, along with other sleep related disorders like restless legs syndrome, hypersomnia and narcolepsy. She also does research on hyperkinetic movement disorders and particularly on dystonia and neurophysiology of dystonia. She is the author of more than 100 articles in international peer-reviewed journals.

Joan Santamaria, MD, PhD

Dr. Santamaria is the Emeritus Researcher at the Biomedical Research Institute (IDIBAPS) in Barcelona, affiliated with the Hospital Clinic of Barcelona, where he worked for most of his career. In 1988 he started the Clinical Neurophysiology and Sleep Laboratory at the Hospital Clinic of Barcelona where he completed most of his research on sleep and neurological diseases in collaboration with Drs. Eduard Tolosa, Alex Iranzo, Francesc Graus and Josep Dalmau. His work on clinical imaging and neurophysiological evaluation of REM sleep behavior disorder, in frequent cooperation with the Neurological Department of Innsbruck University, has contributed significantly to the advancement of the field.