Am J Psychiatry 1989; 146:329-333
Copyright © 1989 by American Psychiatric Association
Sleep EEG and DST findings in anergic bipolar depression
ME Thase, JM Himmelhoch, AG Mallinger, DB Jarrett and DJ Kupfer
University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic, PA 15213.
The authors report sleep EEG and dexamethasone suppression test (DST)
findings for a homogeneous sample of anergic bipolar depressed outpatients
(bipolar I, N = 7; bipolar II, N = 19) characterized by motor retardation,
volitional inhibition, hypersomnia, or weight gain and sleep EEG findings
for 26 age- and sex-matched normal control subjects. Sleep architecture was
abnormal in bipolar depression, particularly with respect to little stage 1
sleep. The biological profile of an anergic episode of bipolar depression
did not include a shorter than normal mean REM latency, poor sleep
continuity, or abnormally low amounts of stages 3 and 4 sleep, and only
three (13%) of 23 patients manifested cortisol nonsuppression.
