All-night spectral analysis of the sleep EEG in untreated depressives and normal controls.
Sleep was recorded in nine drug-free depressive patients and nine age- and sex-matched normal control subjects. All-night spectral analysis of the sleep electroencephalogram (EEG) showed a significantly reduced power density in the 0.25-2.50 Hz band in the depressive group. Power density values integrated over the entire frequency range (0.25-25.0 Hz) exhibited for both groups a decreasing trend over the first three non-REM/REM sleep cycles. In each cycle depressives had lower values than controls. The results are consistent with hypothesis that the build-up of a sleep-dependent process is deficient in the sleep regulation of depressive patients.
D000328:Adult; D003866:Depressive Disorder / Q000175:diagnosis*; D004569:Electroencephalography; D005071:Evoked Potentials; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D012894:Sleep Stages; D012895:Sleep, REM