Antidepressants and EEG Sleep: Search for Specificity

Abstract

The measurement of electroencephalographic (EEG) sleep parameters in de-pressed patients provides opportunities both to understand the characteristic features of EEG sleep in depression and to examine the interaction of antidepressants, EEG sleep, and disease. On the basis of studies completed to date, we can state that the EEG sleep profile in such patients improves the diagnostic classification of affective states, offers an objective set of indicators in assessing the severity of illness, and provides an aid to the choice and length of treatment. Indeed, since the effects of antidepressant agents on sleep are immediate and pronounced, studies of these drug-induced effects on sleep may also represent a rational method for drug classification. However, despite the fact that sleep investigations represent an attractive laboratory aid in understanding the possible relationship between central nervous system functioning and affective disorders, relatively few studies with antidepressants have been undertaken. Even fewer studies have been designed to test a specific set of hypotheses.