Key result
Psychiatric diagnoses were associated with distinct EEG profiles, grouping schizophrenics and manics into high activation, and major depressives into low activation compared to nonpatients.
Why the study?
Do quantitative EEG variables differ across various psychiatric diagnoses compared to nonpatients?
Cross-Sectional (n=336)
Do quantitative EEG variables differ across various psychiatric diagnoses compared to nonpatients?
Quantitative EEG variables show distinct patterns of activation across different psychiatric diagnoses, potentially aiding in objective classification.
May support objective EEG classification of psychiatric disorders; leaves open clinical utility pending prospective validation.
Psychiatric diagnostic correlates of EEG measures were investigated in 242 unmedicated patients and 94 nonpatients. Computer analysis of eyes-open and eyes-closed EEGs (12 leads) provided time series of amplitude, frequency, and wave-symmetry measures; mean levels and temporal variability indexes were also factor analyzed across leads. Comparisons between various age- and sex-matched groups disclosed numerous differences. Compared with those of nonpatients, schizophrenics' EEGs showed lower amplitude variability, greater frequency variability, greater wave symmetry, and less reactivity to eye opening. The EEGs of schizophrenic subgroups, including latent schizophrenics, were similar and also like those of manics. The EEGs of manics and major depressives differed markedly. The EEGs of subjects with personality disorders and schizophrenics differed from nonpatients in opposite directions. Groups could be classed according to the level of EEG activation: high included manics and schizophrenics; normal, nonpatients and neurotics; and low, major depressives and those with personality disorders.
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Charles Shagass (1982) conducted a cross-sectional in Psychiatric disorders (n=336). Psychiatric diagnosis vs. Nonpatients was evaluated on Quantitative EEG variables (amplitude, frequency, wave-symmetry, reactivity). Psychiatric diagnoses were associated with distinct EEG profiles, grouping schizophrenics and manics into high activation, and major depressives into low activation compared to nonpatients.
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