Elsevier

Biological Psychiatry

Volume 37, Issue 12, 15 June 1995, Pages 859-865
Biological Psychiatry

Original article
Stressful life events and EEG sleep in depressed and normal control adolescents

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EEG sleep measures in 35 depressed and 33 normal control adolescents were examined in relation to stressful life events occurring in the year before sleep studies. There was a significant interaction between stressful life events and diagnostic status for REM latency and total REM time. In the normal controls, the presence of stressful life events was significantly associated with reduced REM latency and increased total REM time. Among the depressed adolescents, there were no significant effects of stressful life events on REM latency or total REM time. The depressed adolescents with no stressful life events (n = 9) had significantly lower REM latency values compared to normal control adolescents with no stressful life events (n = 13) (61.7 ± 50.0 vs. 132.1 ± 79.0, p ≤ .01). It appears that stressful life events influence at least some measures of adolescent sleep and should be considered in future controlled studies aimed at understanding sleep changes in adolescent depression.

Depression
adolescents
polysomnography
stress
life events

Cited by (0)

These data were presented in part at the 40th Annual meeting of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry held in San Antonio, TX 1993.