Dimitrios Jim Papadopoulos

Dimitrios (Jim) Papadopoulos

Dimitrios (Jim) Papadopoulos

Title:
The snoring child - behaviour, learning and dentofacial development

Synopsis:
Sleep problems are common in children of all ages. In the school aged child, 30 to 50% have significant sleep disorders, and approximately one third of parents desire help with sleep difficulties in their children. Disordered sleep affects mood, behaviour and cognition and has an adverse impact on the family. The adverse impacts can manifest with inattention and hyperactivity. Adverse intellectual impacts may be irreversible. Snoring even if non-vibratory (heavy breathing) can indicate underlying obstructive sleep apnoea which as well as the above problems is a very important contributor to adverse dentofacial outcomes. Childhood sleep disorders are relatively easy to diagnose and eminently treatable, leading to measurable social, behavioural and neurocognitive benefits for children and their families. Brief case presentations and digital sleep study data including video and sound will be presented. A referral algorithm will be suggested.

Bio:
Jim was admitted to FRACP in General Paediatrics in 2002.

He completed subspecialty training in Paediatric Sleep Medicine in June 2003 as the first prospectively accredited Level 2 (highest possible level) Paediatric sleep physician in Australasia.

He began The Children's Sleep Medicine Service in 2003, establishing Australia's first multidisciplinary Sleep Clinic specifically for developmentally delayed children at the St George Diagnostic and Assessment Service in Kogarah that same year.

In February 2004 he established the only Private Hospital Paediatric Sleep Unit in NSW to offer a complete suite of Paediatric Sleep Laboratory services including sleep studies for children under 2 years of age and non-invasive ventilation studies.

He currently directs the Paediatric Sleep Disorders Unit at St George Private hospital, is a staff specialist sleep paediatrician at Sydney Children's Hospital, Randwick and he remains involved in undergraduate and postgraduate medical teaching as a conjoint lecturer in Paediatrics at the University of New South Wales. He sees patients in Kogarah, Miranda, Randwick, Stanmore and Liverpool.

Jim's special interests are in how sleep disorders impact on behaviour and learning in children (crankiness, irritability, withdrawal, inattention, oppositional behaviours and IQ deficits, comprehension and reading problems), sleep disorders in developmentally delayed children, and dentofacial aspects of respiratory sleep disorders. His research publications to date have included studying sleep, behaviour and cognition in children with Prader-Willi Syndrome, sleep disorders and constitutional short stature, sleep efficiency in children's sleep units, recognition of sleep disorders in developmentally delayed children, sleep disorders and carer malaise in CHARGE syndrome and he is currently investigating sleep disorders in Angelman Syndrome and bruxism.