Study on the physiological changes of the late-onset depression during sleep

Abstract

Objective To explore ihe physiological changes of the late-onset depressive(LOD) persons during sleep.Methods 15 cases of LOD patients formed a group and 10 healthy aging persons formed a control group.Hamilton Depression Scale (HAMD) was used to score the severity of depression and polysomnographic recorders were used to monitor the whole night long.The subjective feelings of the sleep and the daytime mental status were assessed in the morning.Results Compared with the controlde group, the LOD patients obviously possessed a disordered sleeping process: sleep efficiency was lower( ( 59.20 ± 2.90 ) %, ( 77.09 ± 1.55 ) %, P ＜0.01 ); their sleep latency was longer( (54.00 ± 4.97 ), ( 24.00 ± 2.91 ), P ＜ 0.01 ); the numbers of rapid eye movement(REM) sleep phase and rapid eye movement latency(REML) were strikingly different(P＜0.01 ).Compad with the control group, the LOD patients' awakening time and percent were significantly increased.Not only were the time and percentage of S2 sleep phase much higher, but the time of slow wave sleep was shorter.Besides,REM sleep activity, its density, and its intensity were raised (P ＜ 0.05 ).Conclusion There is a disturbance of the objective physiological indexes happening among the LOD patients.The increase of S2 sleeping time and percentage and the disinhibition of REM sleep can be used as the diagnosis indexes of LOD patients' specificity. Key words: Late-life depression; Polysomnogram; Rapid eye movement sleep; Disinhibition