All-night electroencephalographic sleep and cranial computed tomography in depression. A study of unipolar and bipolar patients.
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.
Lauer
C J
CJ
Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry, Department of Psychiatry, Munich, Federal Republic of Germany.
Wiegand
M
M
Krieg
J C
JC
D000328:Adult; D001921:Brain / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D002552:Cerebral Ventricles; D003866:Depressive Disorder / Q000145:classification / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000503:physiopathology*; D004569:Electroencephalography; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D017286:Polysomnography; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D012894:Sleep Stages; D012895:Sleep, REM; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed