[Gez]

Can anyone tell me what they know about depression and sleep deprivation therapy? Apparently, sleep deprivation therapy can lift a person out of a very low mood. I was wondering if anyone had heard of it and if they'd had this type therapy?

Thanks

Gez

[Nerak]

I have not but would love to hear more about it.

[(JD)]

</font><blockquote><div id="quote"><font class="small">Quote:</font>
2: Sleep Med Rev 2002 Oct;6(5):361-77

Therapeutic use of sleep deprivation in depression.

Giedke H, Schwarzler F.

Department of Psychiatry, University of Tubingen, Osianderstr. 24, Germany.
henner.giedke@med.uni-tuebingen.de

Total sleep deprivation (TSD) for one whole night improves depressive symptoms
in 40-60% of treatments. The degree of clinical change spans a continuum from
complete remission to worsening (in 2-7%). Other side effects are sleepiness and
(hypo-) mania. Sleep deprivation (SD) response shows up in the SD night or on
the following day. Ten to 15% of patients respond after recovery sleep only.
After recovery sleep 50-80% of day 1 responders suffer a complete or partial
relapse; but improvement can last for weeks. Sleep seems to lead to relapse
although this is not necessarily the case. Treatment effects may be stabilised
by antidepressant drugs, lithium, shifting of sleep time or light therapy. The
best predictor of a therapeutic effect is a large variability of mood. Current
opinion is that partial sleep deprivation (PSD) in the second half of the night
is equally effective as TSD. There are, however, indications that TSD is
superior. Early PSD (i.e. sleeping between 3:00 and 6:00) has the same effect as
late PSD given equal sleep duration. New data cast doubt on the time-honoured
conviction that REM sleep deprivation is more effective than non-REM SD. Both
may work by reducing total sleep time. SD is an unspecific therapy. The main
indication is the depressive syndrome. Some studies show positive effects in
Parkinson's disease. It is still unknown how sleep deprivation works.

</div></font></blockquote><font class="post">

Weird, if you ask me.. thinking.... What do they do with the increased suicide rates for depressed ppl who go without sleep? I'm thinking because this is THERAPEUTIC meaning you're in lock up, you can't do that??? Interesting. I'm not interested, I do enough non-sleep all nighters to figure it won't work for me!

[darkeyes]

I would think and have been told by my doc and pdoc, sleep deprivation is detrimental to one's mental and physical health. All I know it makes me worse when I'm deprived of my sleep. When I have had to travel and couldn't sleep, I felt terrible and delirious as the hours wore on. Maybe this helps some, but I would think very few. Sleep deprivation was so bad for me until my snoring husband agreed to sleep in the guest room. You can hear him all the way outside by the driveway, he refuses having the procedure and/or options to help correct this. But that is a whole other topic.
Sleep deprivation has been known to fuel depression and spark mania in bipolars, my pdoc always stresses to his bipolar clients to get adequate, quality sleep.
I love a good sleep, haven't had a good one for awhile, but looking forward to one that I can awake before the dog or alarm clock, and feel awake, rested. . .well I can dream, right?? ha!ha!
Lots of luck with what you choose.
DE


Sky,
Thanks for printing this, perhaps it will encourage others to use the internet to find info. on some topics that can be added here or just for one's own knowledge.
TC

[Samanthaq]

</font><blockquote><div id="quote"><font class="small">Quote:</font>
darkeyes said:
I would think and have been told by my doc and pdoc, sleep deprivation is detrimental to one's mental and physical health. All I know it makes me worse when I'm deprived of my sleep. When I have had to travel and couldn't sleep, I felt terrible and delirious as the hours wore on. Maybe this helps some, but I would think very few.

</div></font></blockquote><font class="post">

I'd have to agree here, when I don't get enough sleep, I get worse, more depressed, more panicky, more worried, more stressed which just makes me sleep even less and it's a vicious cycle that a time or two has gon on long enough, and bad enough that I pass out from fatigue. When I wake up . . . I'm not much better off . . . So maybe I'm one of the 2-7% they talk about? I just don't think it is a good idea to try this without a doctor around. I don't sleep enough as it is, when next I see my pdoc I'm going to ask him about something to help me sleep properly because I'm so tired all the time . . .

Sam

[Gez]

Thank you very much for your replies. And, Sky, thank you for posting the information above.

I joined this group some time ago because I wanted to support someone with depression. Now, I suffer with it myself, and it is NOT pleasant. I didn;t realise just how debilitating depression could be. Anyway, I was doing a depression quizz on-line and stumbled on the fact that sleep deprivation can improve mood in some individuals.

I wanted to post about slep deprivation because I've noticed that if I sleep more hours than I should, it makes my mood worse. However, I have also noticed that If I get 5 hours of sleep for a few days, my mood improves. I am just wondering and very curious as to how sleep deprivation works for some people and not others.

Thanks for all your replies.

[Perzephone]

I don't know about depression therapy from sleep deprivation, but I've worked with it shamanic practices. Sleep deprivation & fasting helps facilitate a 'dream quest' or 'spirit walk'.