Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-t7fkt Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-25T10:10:57.345Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Sleep Electroencephalography in Depressive Illness a Collaborative Study by the World Health Organization

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Julien Mendlewicz*
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, Erasme Hospital, University Clinics of Brussels, Free University of Brussels, Route de Lennik 808, B-1070 Brussels, Belgium
Myriam Kerkhofs
Affiliation:
Sleep Laboratory, Department of Psychiatry, Erasme Hospital, University Clinics of Brussels, Free University of Brussels
*
Correspondence

Abstract

Eight WHO research centres from Europe, North America and Asia took part in a WHO study aimed at assessing the reliability and consistency of sleep-EEG abnormalities in major depression. Each centre was asked to include in the study ten depressed patients aged 20–65 years meeting the Research Diagnostic Criteria for a major depressive disorder, and to match them by age and gender with ten controls. There were 67 patients and 66 controls included in the study. Compared with controls, depressed patients showed sleep-continuity disturbances such as increase in sleep-onset latency, and decrease in total sleep time and in sleep efficiency. Stages 2 and 3, as percentages of total sleep time, were reduced in depressed patients, REM latency was shortened and REM density increased. These findings confirm the presence of specific sleep-EEG abnormalities in major depression.

Type
Papers
Copyright
Copyright © 1991 The Royal College of Psychiatrists 

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

Bech, P. & Rafaelsen, O. J. (1980) The use of rating scales exemplified by a comparison of the Hamilton and the Bech Rafaelsen Melancholia Scale. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica (suppl.), 285, 128131.Google Scholar
Bech, P., Gastpar, M. & Mendlewicz, J. (1986) The role of training courses in multicenter trials: WHO experiences. In Biological Psychiatry (vol. 7) (eds Shagass, C., Josiassen, R., Bridger, W., et al), pp. 15101512. Amsterdam: Elsevier.Google Scholar
Carney, M., Roth, M. & Garside, R. (1965) The diagnosis of depressive syndromes and the prediction of ECT response. British Journal of Psychiatry, 111, 659674.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Coble, P., Foster, F. G. & Kupfer, D. J. (1976) Electroencephalographic sleep diagnosis of primary depression. Archives of General Psychiatry, 33, 11241127.Google Scholar
Dunleavy, D. L. F., Brezinova, V., Oswald, I., et al (1972) Changes during weeks in effects of tricyclic drugs on the human sleeping brain. British Journal of Psychiatry, 120, 663672.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Feinberg, M., Gillin, J. C., Carroll, B. J., et al (1982) EEG studies of sleep in the diagnosis of depression. Biological Psychiatry, 17, 305316.Google Scholar
Gillin, J. C., Duncan, W. B., Murphy, D. L., et al (1981) Age-related changes in sleep in depressed and normal subjects. Psychiatry Research, 4, 7378.Google Scholar
Hamilton, M. (1960) A rating scale for depression. Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry, 23, 5662.Google Scholar
Insel, T. R., Gillin, J. C., Moore, A., et al (1982) The sleep of patients with obsessive compulsive disorder. Archives of General Psychiatry, 39, 13721377.Google Scholar
Kerkhofs, M., Hoffman, G., De Martelaer, V., et al (1985) Sleep EEG recordings in depressive disorders. Journal of Affective Disorders, 9, 4753.Google Scholar
Kerkhofs, M., Kempenaers, C., Linkowski, , et al (1988) Multivariate study of sleep EEG in depression. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica, 77, 463468.Google Scholar
Kupfer, D. J. & Foster, F. G. (1978) EEG sleep and depression. In Sleep Disorders: Diagnosis and Treatment (eds Williams, R. L. & Karacan, I.), ch. 7, pp. 163204. New York: John Wiley.Google Scholar
Kupfer, D. J., Foster, G., Coble, P., et al (1978) The application of EEG sleep for the differential diagnosis of affective disorders. American Journal of Psychiatry, 135, 6974.Google Scholar
Norusis, M. J. (1986) SPSS/PC + Statistical Program. Chicago: SPSS Inc.Google Scholar
Rechtschaffen, A. & Kales, A. (1968) A Manual of Standardized Terminology, Techniques and Scoring System for Sleep Stages of Human Subjects. Washington, DC: Public Health Service, US Government Printing Office.Google Scholar
Spitzer, R. L., Endicott, J. & Robins, E. (1978) The research diagnostic criteria: rationale and reliability. Archives of General Psychiatry, 35, 773.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Uhde, T. W., Roy-Byrne, P., Gillin, J. C., et al (1984) The sleep of patients with panic disorders: a preliminary report. Psychiatric Research, 12, 251259.Google Scholar
Ulrich, R. F., Shaw, D. H. & Kupfer, D. J. (1980) Electroencephalographic sleep diagnosis of primary depression. Sleep, 3, 3140.Google Scholar
World Health Organization (1978) Mental Disorders: Glossary and Guide to their Classification in Accordance with the Ninth Revision of the International Classification of Disease. Geneva: WHO.Google Scholar
Zarcone, V. P., Benson, K. L. & Berger, P. A. (1987) Abnormal rapid eye movement latencies in schizophrenia. Archives of General Psychiatry, 44, 4548.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Submit a response

eLetters

No eLetters have been published for this article.