Abstract
This study examined the relationship between longitudinal clinical course and sleep and cortisol findings in adolescent unipolar major depressive disorder (MDD). Subjects were 28 adolescents (15.4 ± 1.3 years) systematically diagnosed with unipolar MDD and 35 group-matched normal controls who participated in EEG sleep and neuroendocrine studies. Follow-up clinical assessments were conducted 7.0 ± 0.5 years later in 94% of the original cohort. Although initial group comparisons failed to show significant differences in biologic measures, analyses incorporating clinical follow-up reveal that changes in sleep and cortisol measures are associated with differential longitudinal course. Normal controls who would develop depression; after the biologic studies had shown significantly higher density of rapid eye movements (REM) and a trend for reduced REM latency compared to controls with no psychiatric disorder at follow-up. Depressed subjects with a recurrent unipolar course showed a trend towards elevated plasma cortisol near sleep onset compared to MDD subjects with no further episodes during the follow-up interval.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 474-484 |
Number of pages | 11 |
Journal | Biological Psychiatry |
Volume | 40 |
Issue number | 6 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Sep 15 1996 |
Keywords
- Adolescent
- Cortisol
- Depression
- EEG sleep
- Onset
- Recurrence
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Biological Psychiatry