Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-r5fsc Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-25T11:28:10.014Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Sleep Thresholds in Depression

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 February 2018

Irene Martin
Affiliation:
Institute of Psychiatry, University of London
Brian M. Davies
Affiliation:
Bethlem Royal and Maudsley Hospitals, London

Extract

There are conflicting psychiatric opinions about the value of separating depressive illnesses into several syndromes on clinical grounds, and so far experimental attempts to reach a classification of depression by distinguishing physiological or biochemical features which characterize one group rather than another have had only limited success. One interesting series of experiments in this area has been that of Shagass and his colleagues on the sedation threshold (Shagass et al., 1956, Shagass and Naiman, 1956, Shagass, 1954); they report that neurotic and psychotic depressions can be differentiated by means of EEG and other reactions to sodium amytal (amylobarbitone sodium) neurotics requiring greater amounts of the drug to reach the sedation threshold.

Type
Psychological
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1962 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Ackner, B., and Pampiglione, G. (1959). “An evaluation of the sedation threshold test”, J. Psychosom. Res., 3, 271281.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Boudreau, D. (1958). “Evaluation of the sedation threshold test”, A.M.A. Arch. Neur. Psychiat., 80, 771775.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Busfield, B. L., and Wechsler, M. (1961). “Studies of salivation in depression”, Arch. Gen. Psychiat., 4, 10.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Claridge, G. S., and Herrington, R. N. (1960). “Sedation threshold, personality, and the theory of neurosis”, J. Ment. Sci., 106, 15681583.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Davies, B. M. (1960). “The methacholine test in depressive states”, A.M.A. Arch. Gen. Psychiat., 3, 1416.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Davies, B. M., and Gurland, J. B. (1961). “Salivary secretion in depressive illness”, J. Psychosom. Res., 5, 269271.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Eysenck, H. J. (1956). “The questionnaire measurement of neuroticism and extraversion”, Riv. di Psicologia, 50, 133140.Google Scholar
Idem (1960). “Classification and the problem of diagnosis”, in Eysenck, H. J. (Ed.) Handbook of Abnormal Psychology. London: Pitman, pp. 131.Google Scholar
Funkenstein, D. H., Greenblatt, M., and Solomon, H. C. (1951). “Autonomic changes paralleling psychologic changes in mentally ill patients”, J. Nerv. Ment. Dis., 114, 118.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kawi, Ali A. (1958). “The sedation threshold. Its concept and use for comparative studies on drug-induced phenomena”, Arch. Neur. Psychiat., 80, 232236.Google Scholar
Kreitman, N., Sainsbury, P., Morrissey, J., Towers, J., and Scrivener, J. (1961). “The reliability of psychiatric assessment. An analysis”, J. Ment. Sci., 107, 887908.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rodnight, , Emer, , and Gooch, R. N. “A new method for the determination of individual differences in susceptibility to a depressant drug”. In Experiments with Drugs (Ed. Eysenck, H. J.). Oxford: Pergamon Press (to appear 1962).Google Scholar
Seager, C. P. (1960). “Problems in technique concerning the sedation threshold”, EEG and Clin. Neurophysiol., 12, 910.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shagass, C. (1954). “The sedation threshold. A method for estimating tension in psychiatric patients”, EEG and Clin. Neurophysiol., 6, 221233.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Idem , and Naiman, , James, (1956). “The sedation threshold as an objective index of manifest anxiety in psycho-neurosis”, J. Psychosom. Res., 1, 4957.Google Scholar
Iidem , and Mihalik, , Joseph, (1956). “An objective test which differentiates between neurotic and psychotic depression”, A.M.A. Arch. Neurol. Psychiat., 75, 461471.Google Scholar
Shagass, , Charles, , and Kerenyi, , Albert, (1958). “The ‘sleep’ threshold. A simple form of the sedation threshold for clinical use”, Canad. Psychiat. J., 3, 101109.Google Scholar
Taylor, Janet A. (1953). “A personality scale of manifest anxiety”, J. Abn. and Soc. Psychol., 48, 285290.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thorpe, J. G., and Barker, J. C. (1957). “Objectivity of the sedation threshold”, A.M.A. Arch. Neur. Psychiat., 78, 194196.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Trouton, D. S., and Maxwell, A. E. (1956). “The relation between neurosis and psychosis”, J. Ment. Sci., 102, 121.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Submit a response

eLetters

No eLetters have been published for this article.