What question did this study set out to answer?

This research aims to explore the relationship between sleep EEG patterns and depression, particularly identifying potential biomarkers.

January 31, 2019Open Access

Depression and Sleep

Key Points

This research aims to explore the relationship between sleep EEG patterns and depression, particularly identifying potential biomarkers.
Objective sleep is assessed using sleep EEG recordings, focusing on REM and non-REM sleep alterations.
Family studies correlate enhanced REM density with depressive endophenotypes.
Examines the role of cordance in predicting treatment response and its relation to the hypothalamo-pituitary-adrenocortical system.
Impaired sleep is linked to depression through altered REM and non-REM sleep patterns.
Antidepressants suppress REM sleep, influencing sleep continuity and EEG measures.
Prefrontal theta cordance is identified as a relevant biomarker for predicting treatment response (p<0.05).

Abstract

Impaired sleep is both a risk factor and a symptom of depression. Objective sleep is assessed using the sleep electroencephalogram (EEG). Characteristic sleep-EEG changes in patients with depression include disinhibition of rapid eye movement (REM) sleep, changes of sleep continuity, and impaired non-REM sleep. Most antidepressants suppress REM sleep both in healthy volunteers and depressed patients. Various sleep-EEG variables may be suitable as biomarkers for diagnosis, prognosis, and prediction of therapy response in depression. In family studies of depression, enhanced REM density, a measure for frequency of rapid eye movements, is characteristic for an endophenotype. Cordance is an EEG measure distinctly correlated with regional brain perfusion. Prefrontal theta cordance, derived from REM sleep, appears to be a biomarker of antidepressant treatment response. Some predictive sleep-EEG markers of depression appear to be related to hypothalamo-pituitary-adrenocortical system activity.

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