Psychiatry Medicine News Archive Featured in the Media JeffNEWS

The Jefferson Sleep Disorders Center’s new home at 211 S. 9^th Street in Center City will offer state-of the art technology coupled with deluxe hotel accommodations to help diagnose and treat sleeping problems.

Patients undergoing overnight testing at the center’s new facility will be able to sleep in one of at least 10 comfortable and restful “five-star hotel” bedrooms available, which each offer a flat-screen TV, a private bath with showersand individual temperature control, said Sleep Disorders Center Director Karl Doghramji, M.D.

“The rooms have all the amenities of a hotel room,” said Dr. Doghramji, Professor of Psychiatry and Human Behavior at Jefferson Medical College of Thomas Jefferson University.

While the new center currently has 10 bedrooms, there is space available to add two more sleeping areas if needed.

This is the first time since 2003 that all of the center’s services, including patient offices and testing lab are in one location. The new facility also features:

• A kitchen
• A computer monitoring room
• Study and lounge areas
• An indoor parking garage.

The Jefferson Sleep Disorders Center will also have a separate and secure entrance from the adjoining garage to allow patients arriving for nighttime sleep testing access to the facility

The facility is a joint effort by Thomas Jefferson University Hospital and Jefferson University Physicians to provide the most comprehensive center for treatment of sleep disorders, Dr. Doghramji noted. Nearly 70 million Americans voice sleep-related complaints and nearly 60 percent have a chronic sleep disorder.

“This center encompasses the experience and skills of many specialties at Jefferson including psychiatry, pulmonary medicine, neurology, otolaryngology and oral surgery so that all aspects of a patient’s sleep problem can be addressed,” said Dr. Doghramji.

The medical staff also includes sleep medicine specialist Dimitri Markov, M.D., Assistant Professor of Psychiatry and Human Behavior, Jefferson, and Fredric Jaffe, D.O., Assistant Director of the Jefferson Sleep Disorders Center, and Director of Medical Sleep Services in the Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care and Assistant Professor of Medicine, Jefferson.

Among the new equipment at the center are sophisticated EKG analysis capabilities which promise to more accurately detect heart rhythm disturbances during sleep than current methods. A person’s heart rate is usually lower during sleep.

Founded in 1978 through grants from private sources and the National Institutes of Health, the center was the first such program to be established in Philadelphia. It received its accreditation by the American Sleep Disorders Association in 1985.

Dr. Doghramji has practiced and taught sleep disorders medicine since 1984 and has repeatedly been listed, including this year, by Philadelphia magazine as one of its “Top Docs.”

The Jefferson Sleep Disorders Center is engaged in the diagnosis and treatment of sleep disorders – most commonly, sleep apnea syndromes, insomnia and narcolepsy. Indicators of sleep apnea syndrome include excessive daytime sleepiness, snoring, weight gain or obesity or respiratory pauses observed by others. Excessive daytime sleepiness is also a primary symptom of narcolepsy.

The center also evaluates sleep walking, sleep talking, night terrors, head banging, nightmares and other sleep-related disorders, and conducts nocturnal penile tumescence testing as a part of the evaluation of impotence.

Treatments include devices such as continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP), oral appliances, medications and psychotherapy. Behavioral management techniques are frequently employed and include relaxation training with biofeedback, hypnosis, stimulus control therapy, chronotherapy, sleep hygiene management, phototherapy and sleep restriction, among others. Permanent consultants in otolaryngology also perform surgical procedures, most notably laser-assisted uvuloplasty (LAUPP), an office-based procedure for the correction of snoring and obstructive sleep apnea syndrome.

If you feel you would benefit by an evaluation at the Jefferson Sleep Disorders Center, you may schedule an initial appointment by calling 215-955-6175 or 1-800-JEFF-NOW.