Absence of nystagmus during REM sleep in a patient with waking nystagmus and oscillopsia.

Polygraphic recording is presented of the sleep pattern in a young male who developed nystagmus and oscillopsia associated with a remittent CNS demyelinating disease. The vestibular nystagmus observed during wakefulness disappeared during all stages of sleep, including rapid eye movement sleep (REM). Since vestibular nystagmus experimentally induced in wakefulness is also absent during all phases of sleep, these findings suggest that during sleep similar suppressive mechanisms are operative.

Growth hormone responses to L-dopa in depressed patients.

Plasma human growth hormone responses to oral administration of 500 milligrams of L-dopa were analyzed in three groups of subjects: normals, age 20 to 32; normals, age 48 to 68; and unipolar depressed patients, age 45 to 68. While only 7 percent of the young normals had deficient human growth hormone responses to this stimulus, 36 percent of the older normals and 77 percent of the depressed patients failed to have adequate responses, suggesting an effect of age and a further effect of depressive illness. Because the release of human growth hormone appears to be closely related to brain catecholamine metabolism, the deficient responses in the depressed patients may provide further support to the concept of a neurochemical defect in depressive illness.

Human prolactin: 24-hour pattern with increased release during sleep.

Human prolactin was measured in plasma by radioimmunoassay at 20 minute intervals for a 24-hour period in each of six normal adults, whose sleep-wake cycles were monitored polygraphically. A marked diurnal variation in plasma concentrations was demonstrated, with highest values during sleep; periods of episodic release occurred throughout the 24 hours.