Circadian preference and sleep quality in healthy controls and psychiatric inpatients with major depressive disorder - An actigraphy study incorporating morning and evening mood assessments.

Major depressive disorder (MDD) is frequently accompanied by sleep disturbance. Regarding diurnal preference (chronotype), sleep problems and low mood have been associated with evening orientation. Considering diurnal preference, we investigated subjective restorative value of sleep and actigraphy sleep parameters together with mood assessments twice a day, i.

The effects of recovery sleep on pain perception: A systematic review.

Experimental studies highlight profound effects of sleep disruptions on pain, showing that sleep deprivation (SD) leads to hyperalgesic pain changes. On the other hand, given that sleep helps normalizing bodily functions, a crucial role of restorative sleep in the overnight restoration of the pain system seems likely. Thus, a systematic review of experimental studies on effects of recovery sleep (RS; subsequently to SD) on pain was performed with the aim to check whether RS resets hyperalgesic pain changes occurring due to SD.

Influence of chronotype on daily mood fluctuations: pilot study in patients with depression.

Depression risk is associated with a late chronotype pattern often described as an 'evening chronotype'. Fluctuations in mood over consecutive days have not yet been measured according to chronotype in in-patients with depression. A total of 30 in-patients with depression and 32 healthy controls matched for gender and age completed a chronotype questionnaire and twice-daily ratings on mood for 10 consecutive days (registered in the German Clinical Trials Register: DRKS00010215).

Evening preference and poor sleep independently affect attentional-executive functions in patients with depression.

Cognitive impairments are well documented in major depressive disorder (MDD), however, they cannot be fully explained by depressive symptom severity. We investigated how diurnal preference and sleep quality affect cognitive function in MDD. In 34 inpatients with current MDD and 29 healthy controls (HC), we obtained diurnal preference (Morningness-Eveningness Questionnaire, MEQ) and subjective sleep quality (Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index, PSQI).

Actigraphic, but not subjective, sleep measures are associated with cognitive impairment in memory clinic patients.

Aim: Sleep disturbances are prevalent in various dementia subtypes but rarely investigated in early clinical stages. Although memory clinics have become an established institution for the early diagnosis of dementia, sleep assessment is not part of their routine diagnostics. This study aimed to examine whether subjective and objective sleep variables are related to cognitive impairment in patients referred to a memory clinic.

[Subjective memory impairments in early detection of dementia: Relation to acceptability of lumbar puncture in memory clinic patients].

Background: In memory clinics, biomarker-based diagnostic tools for early detection and differential diagnosis of dementia are increasingly important, even if their acceptance by patients is relatively low.

Objective: The aim of study was to examine whether sociodemographic and clinical features of memory clinic patients are associated with acceptance of lumbar puncture (LP). Of particular interest was the patients' self-perception of memory decline (subjective memory impairment, SMI) accompanied by related concerns that might affect decision to consent to LP.

Subjective sleep quality and sleep duration of patients in a psychiatric hospital.

Sleep complaints and sleep disturbances are highly prevalent in patients with psychiatric disorders. During hospitalization the patients' condition may be even worse but little is known about the subjective sleep quality in psychiatric hospitals. Thus, we have investigated subjective sleep quality and mean sleep duration in patients with different psychiatric disorders at the end of hospitalization.

Sleep Duration of Inpatients With a Depressive Disorder: Associations With Age, Subjective Sleep Quality, and Cognitive Complaints.

Sleep complaints and sleep disturbances are common in depression; however, the association of sleep duration and subjective sleep quality has been rarely investigated. Thus, subjective sleep quality and sleep duration were analyzed in depressed inpatients. Questionnaire data comprising clinical and sleep-related questions were sampled over a one-year period from adult inpatients with depressive syndromes.

Eveningness and poor sleep quality independently contribute to self-reported depression severity in psychiatric inpatients with affective disorder.

Background Chronotype and insomnia have been related to the development and to an unfavourable course of depression. However, the mutual relationship of both risk factors is as yet unclear, especially in acute, clinically manifest depressive disorders. Aims The present study was carried out to elucidate the separate direct and indirect influence of chronotype and poor sleep quality on depression severity in patients hospitalized for depression.

Chronotypes in patients with nonseasonal depressive disorder: Distribution, stability and association with clinical variables.

The individual's chronotype is regarded as rather stable trait with substantial heritability and normal distribution of the "morningness-eveningness" dimension in the general population. Eveningness has been related to the risk of developing affective, particularly depressive, disorders. However, age and other sociobiological factors may influence chronotypes.

[MVT - A Multiprofessional Behavioural Therapy Program for Inpatient Treatment of Depression in Old Age].

Objective: Depression in old age is common but patients are rarely treated in specialized units implementing a psychotherapeutic treatment approach.

Methods: A multiprofessional behavioral therapy program (MVT) for inpatient treatment of depressive elderlies was conceptualized, implemented and evaluated at a specialized unit of a hospital for psychiatry and psychotherapy.

Results: Preliminary analyses indicated that various behavioral group interventions were well accepted by patients.

Comparison of polysomnographic variables and their relationship to cognitive impairment in patients with Alzheimer's disease and frontotemporal dementia.

Polysomnograhic (PSG) studies in Alzheimer's disease (AD) show REM sleep abnormalities, which may be indicative for the deterioration of cholinergic pathways and probably closely linked to declarative memory impairment. To clarify the specificity of the association between sleep and cognitive impairment in dementia, we compared AD patients with patients suffering from frontotemporal dementia (FTD) with regard to PSG and neuropsychological variables. 15 AD and 6 FTD patients underwent polysomonography and a neuropsychological battery (CERAD-NB).

The effects of oral contraceptives on detection and pain thresholds as well as headache intensity during menstrual cycle in migraine.

Background: Clinically, oral contraceptives (OC) can influence pain in both migraine headache and temporomandibular pain disorders. Estrogen as an ingredient of OC might be a responsible factor for these observations. We conducted the present study to test whether OC are able to alter the severity of headache attacks as well as the detection or pain thresholds over the course of the menstrual cycle in patients with migraine.

Comparison of different methods for the evaluation of treatment effects from the sleep EEG of patients with major depression.

In healthy subjects, sleep has a typical structure of three to five cyclic transitions between different sleep states. In major depression, this regular pattern is often destroyed but can be reestablished during successful treatment. The differences between healthy and abnormal sleep are generally assessed in a time-consuming process, which consists of determining the nightly variations of the sleep states (the hypnogram) based on visual inspection of the electroencephalogram (EEG), electrooculogram, and electromyogram.

Pain sensitivity in major depression and its relationship to central serotoninergic function as reflected by the neuroendocrine response to clomipramine.

Several studies reported a decreased pain sensitivity in patients with depression, but the underlying neurobiological mechanisms of this phenomenon are unclear. While there is extensive evidence that the serotoninergic system plays a key role in pain modulation, especially in pain inhibitory mechanisms via descending pathways, as well as in the pathophysiology of depression, no study so far has examined its potential relevance in mediating the alteration of pain processing. The present study addresses the question of whether indices of serotoninergic dysfunction, as investigated by a neuroendrocine challenge paradigm, are related to pain sensitivity.

Mid-term effects of serial sleep deprivation therapy implemented in cognitive-behavioral treatment on the neuroendocrine response to clomipramine in patients with major depression.

While data dealing with neurobiological effects of sleep deprivation (SD) are mainly restricted to the acute effects of a single night, only few studies have investigated mid-term effects after repeated SD. We therefore examined the clinical and hormonal characteristics of depressive patients before and after serial SD to determine potential sustained effects, focusing especially on serotoninergic functions. One tool to investigate serotoninergic dysfunction in depression is the use of serotoninergic agents to stimulate hormonal secretion, which is assumed to normalize during a clinically effective therapy.

Effects of total sleep deprivation in major depression: overnight improvement of mood is accompanied by increased pain sensitivity and augmented pain complaints.

Objective: Major depressive disorder (MDD) is associated with more pain complaints and an altered pain perception. Studies regarding the longitudinal relationship between depressive symptoms and pain processing have rarely been performed and have produced inconsistent results. To clarify how short-term alleviation of depressive mood is linked to changes in pain processing, the effect of sleep deprivation (SD) on pain and somatosensory thresholds, pain complaints, and mood was investigated in MDD patients.

Sleep deprivation and pain perception.

Chronically painful conditions are frequently associated with sleep disturbances, i.e. changes in sleep continuity and sleep architecture as well as increased sleepiness during daytime.

Sleep deprivation affects thermal pain thresholds but not somatosensory thresholds in healthy volunteers.

Objective: Sleep disturbances have been thought to augment pain. Sleep deprivation has been proven to produce hyperalgesic effects. It is still unclear whether these changes are truly specific to pain and not related to general changes in somatosensory functions.

The effect of sleep deprivation on pain.

Chronic pain syndromes are associated with alterations in sleep continuity and sleep architecture. One perspective of this relationship, which has not received much attention to date, is that disturbances of sleep affect pain. To fathom this direction of cause, experimental human and animal studies on the effects of sleep deprivation on pain processing were reviewed.