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All-night electroencephalographic sleep and cranial computed tomography in depression

A study of unipolar and bipolar patients

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Summary

All-night electroencephalographic (EEG) sleep recording and cranial computed tomography were performed in 24 inpatients with major depression (14 unipolar, 10 bipolar). The patients showed the characteristic “depression-like” EEG sleep alterations and their ventricular brain ratio (VBR) was increased compared with the control subjects. No major differences were found between the unipolar and the bipolar groups. There was a close and positive association between the VBR values and several measures of slow wave sleep. It is hypothesized that this relationship is due to an altered function of the limbic-hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenocortical axis in depression that affects both EEG sleep and brain morphology.

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  1. Clinical Institute, Department of Psychiatry, Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry, Munich, Federal Republic of Germany

    Christoph J. Lauer & Jürgen-Christian Krieg

  2. Department of Psychiatry, Technical University of Munich, Munich, Federal Republic of Germany

    Michael Wiegand

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  1. Christoph J. Lauer
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  2. Michael Wiegand
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Lauer, C.J., Wiegand, M. & Krieg, JC. All-night electroencephalographic sleep and cranial computed tomography in depression. Eur Arch Psychiatry Clin Nuerosci 242, 59–68 (1992). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02191547

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