Effect of Depressive Disorders on Sleep EEG Responses

The EEG investigations of Diaz-Guerrero et al¹presented evidence that in a comparison of depressed patients with normal control subjects with respect to sleep EEG patterns, the depressed patients exhibited twice as much low-voltage or B stage sleep records, and only about half as much spindle and random-type records or D stage of sleep. They further observed that in a comparison of fluctuations from one EEG level to another in sleep records of patients versus normal control subjects, fluctuations were more frequent for patients. It is, therefore, conceivable that depressed patients, because of their lighter sleep patterns, are more susceptible to auditory stimulation. In a previous publication, we reported the pattern of EEG responses to auditory stimulation during sleep of a group of normal control subjects, at the various stages of sleep.²Responses to auditory stimulation by normal