معرفی
Hrayr Attarian is a Professor of Neurology (Sleep Medicine) at Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine within the Ken and Ruth Davee Department of Neurology. He holds key affiliations with the Center for Circadian and Sleep Medicine, the Institute for Public Health and Medicine (IPHAM) - Center for Bioethics and Medical Humanities, the Northwestern University Clinical and Translational Sciences Institute (NUCATS), and the Robert J. Havey, MD Institute for Global Health - Center for Global Health Education.
Dr. Attarian's research centers on critical gaps in sleep medicine:
- Gender disparities in sleep disorder diagnosis, highlighting that women with sleep apnea face twice the diagnostic delay and frequent misdiagnosis as depression
- Restless leg syndrome (RLS) in pregnancy, where his work disproved estrogen as the primary cause by showing contraceptive estrogen doesn't increase RLS risk
- Sleep abnormalities in multiple sclerosis patients, establishing the first correlation between MS fatigue and circadian rhythm disruption
- Evaluating unproven treatments for partial arousal disorders (sleepwalking, sleep terrors) using medications like clonazepam
He leads the Circadian Rhythms and Sleep Research Laboratory, currently investigating obstructive sleep apnea's neurological complications and screening MS patients for treatable sleep disorders to alleviate fatigue. His work emphasizes underrepresented populations, including pregnant women and pre-menopausal females where research is scarce, while challenging established theories like the hormonal basis of pregnancy-related RLS.
