Unstable EEG-vigilance in patients with cancer-related fatigue (CRF) in comparison to healthy controls.
OBJECTIVE
Cancer-related fatigue (CRF) is associated with tiredness and sleepiness. It remains unclear, whether such complaints are associated with neurophysiological signs of sleep proneness or a state of neurophysiological hyperarousal in which the patient finds it difficult to relax and to initiate sleep. Therefore the goal of this study is to compare the electroencephalographic (EEG)-vigilance regulation of patients with CRF and healthy controls.


METHODS
A 15-min resting EEG with eyes closed was recorded in 22 patients with CRF and 22 matched healthy controls. Consecutive 1-s segments were classified into seven different vigilance stages ranging from high alertness to relaxed wakefulness (stage 0, A1, A2, A3) and further on to drowsiness (B1, B2/3) and sleep onset (stage C).


RESULTS
Results showed that patients with CRF revealed a higher number of vigilance stages A3 (mean 15.26 vs. 6.67%, P = 0.004) dropped significantly earlier to vigilance levels A3 (drop after 130.8 vs. 533.3 s, P = 0.000) and B2/3&C (407.8 vs. 604.1 s, P = 0.035) and showed significantly more transitions between vigilance stages (46.0 vs. 31.1%, P = 0.003) in comparison to healthy controls.


CONCLUSIONS
These findings suggest an unstable vigilance regulation in patients with CRF and provide a neurophysiological framework for the reported efficacy of psychostimulants in CRF.
Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University Hospital Leipzig, Germany. sebastian.olbrich@medizin.uni-leipzig.de
Sebastian
S
Olbrich
Christian
C
Sander
Ina
I
Jahn
Franziska
F
Eplinius
Sylke
S
Claus
Roland
R
Mergl
Peter
P
Schönknecht
Ulrich
U
Hegerl
D000328:Adult; D000465:Algorithms; D001143:Arousal / Q000502:physiology*; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D004569:Electroencephalography / Q000379:methods; D005221:Fatigue / Q000209:etiology / Q000503:physiopathology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000150:complications* / Q000503:physiopathology; D017286:Polysomnography; D012890:Sleep / Q000502:physiology*; D012894:Sleep Stages / Q000502:physiology