Abstract
EARLY TO BED, early to rise, may be the new prescription for depression. Twenty-two years ago, quite by chance, psychiatrists discovered that a night without sleep sometimes cured depression. Since then, more than 1000 patients have been subjected to total sleep deprivation; 70% of those with bipolar depression and 60% of those with unipolar depression respond to the treatment (<i>Prog Neuropsychopharmacol Biol Psychiatry</i>1983;7:351-364). While the effect is immediate (unlike that of antidepressant drugs), it is also short-lived. Relapse typically occurs following a night of recovery sleep. But evidence is accumulating to suggest that partial sleep deprivation—if it occurs at the right time of the night— can exert an effective and lasting benefit to depressed persons (<i>Arch Gen Psychiatry</i>1980;37:267-271). This may open the way for a simple and far more tolerable therapy, even in those patients who do not respond to drugs, and narrow the search for the mechanisms
Published Version
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