Sleep deprivation as treatment for endogenous depression

Abstract

Depressed patients (26), 19 of whom suffered from an endogenous depression, were sleep-deprived for 1 night, and 8 of these were additionally sleep-deprived for 3-9 nights with 2 sleep deprivations/wk. While the sleep deprivation was being carried through, none of the patients were treated with tricyclic antidepressants. The patients were rated before and after the sleep deprivation(s). Sleep deprivation appeared to be effective for both unipolar and bipolar depressions. According to the rating scale an improvement was registered especially when the clinical picture was characterized by depressed mood, psychomotor retardation and anxiety. Sleep deprivation cured 25% of the patients and further incidentally improved another 20% of the patients. Sleep deprivation seemed to be a valuable treatment, especially in retarded endogenous depressions.