title: EEG sleep diagnosis of medical disease in depression.
abstract: The diagnosis of medical disease in the context of a depressive syndrome which may mimic medical illness has traditionally relied on a combination of exhaustive medical screening and neuropsychological testing. When 10 patients with primary depression were compared to 10 patients whose depression occurred in the context of concurrent medical disease, a single EEG sleep variable, total phasic REM activity (RA), correctly identified 95% of all 20 patients as either primary depressives or medical patients with depression. Conventional psychiatric assessment and neuropsychological testing were significantly less powerful discriminators among this sample.
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001714:Bipolar Disorder / Q000175:diagnosis; D001925:Brain Damage, Chronic / Q000175:diagnosis; D002493:Central Nervous System Diseases / Q000150:complications / Q000175:diagnosis; D003863:Depression / Q000150:complications / Q000175:diagnosis*; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D004569:Electroencephalography; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008568:Memory; D008875:Middle Aged; D011581:Psychological Tests; D011930:Reaction Time; D012890:Sleep; D012895:Sleep, REM; D014796:Visual Perception