Sustained Antidepressive Effect of Repeated Partial Sleep Deprivation

Abstract

In a naturalistic clinical trial we administered three partial sleep deprivations (PSD) within one week to a diagnostically heterogeneous sample of 30 depressed patients and applied serially three dexamethasone suppression tests (DST). We observed that this PSD treatment induced sustained clinical improvement independently from nosological attribution. Abnormal DST results prior to PSD treatment failed to predict clinical course, and normalized after beneficial response.

Sleep loss and postpartum psychosis

“…An understanding of how the hormonal and physiologic factors interact to produce postpartum psychopathology will help to explain why pregnancy is a period of relative mood stability in certain bipolar women (74,75) and it will also stimulate a search for new strategies for prevention and treatment of postpartum psychosis. It is a serious psychiatric disorder that usually requires emergency hospitalization to ensure the safety of the mother and the newborn.…”

“…There is no period in a woman's life when the risk of onset or exacerbation of bipolar disorder is as high as the postpartum period. An understanding of how the hormonal and physiologic factors interact to produce postpartum psychopathology will help to explain why pregnancy is a period of relative mood stability in certain bipolar women (74,75) and it will also stimulate a search for new strategies for prevention and treatment of postpartum psychosis. The use of psychotropic medications during pregnancy may not be necessary in some women as prevention of sleep loss around the time of delivery may avert an episode of postpartum psychosis.…”

Sleep Deprivation in Mood Disorders

“…partial SD repeated once a week for 3 weeks [53] , or 3 times a week [54] , or twice a week for 2 weeks [55] , or 3 times a week for 2 weeks [56] , or 5 times at 5-day intervals [57] , or 6 times at 4-to 5-day intervals [58] ; or total SD twice a week [59] , or twice a week for 3 weeks [60,61] or for a month [62] , or twice a week followed by partial SD twice [63] , and so on. Repeated total SD once a week has also been proposed as a prophylactic treatment, to sustain response and prevent relapses [64,65] .…”