 |
|
|
The Effects of Fluoxetine on Quantitative Sleep
EEG in Depressed Outpatients
Robert F. Hoffmann, Ph.D., Roseanne Armitage, Ph.D., Madhukar H. Trivedi, M.D., and A. John Rush, M.D.
In previous studies, fluoxetine has been shown to increase light, nonrestorative sleep and
to decrease sleep efficiency. This work also suggested that women are more sensitive to
the alerting effects of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors on sleep characteristics. The
purpose of the present study was to evaluate the effects of fluoxetine on quantitative
sleep EEG. The effects of five and ten weeks of fluoxetine treatment on quantitative sleep
EEG were evaluated in 36 patients with major depressive disorders compared to baseline
when patients were symptomatic but unmedicated. All patients were treatment
responders, achieving symptom remission at week 10. Fluoxetine significantly increased
fast-frequency activity and decreased delta during sleep at both 5 weeks and 10 weeks
of treatment. Contrary to our expectation, treatment effects on EEG were not stronger in
depressed women than men. The protocol also included sleep studies at week 30 of
treatment and 7-8 weeks after medication discontinuation. Since only 13/36 (36.1%)
patients completed the entire protocol, the effects of fluoxetine on quantitative sleep EEG
were compared in study completers versus dropouts. Dropouts showed the largest
fluoxetine-induced EEG changes (from baseline to week 10) with greater beta amplitude
and lower delta amplitude than study completers. This effect approached significance. It
was concluded that fluoxetine is alerting to both standard sleep measure and to
quantitative sleep EEG and that these effects may be related to clinical outcome.
(Sleep and Hypnosis 1999;4:217-224)
| Keywords: fluoxetine, depression, sleep EEG |
|
|
| To download full text of articles please |
|
|
| |
