Thesis (M.A.)--Boston UniversityDepression is a common mental disorder that does not discriminate between age, gender, or race. Depression occurs when extreme feelings of sadness, accompanied by other physical symptoms, such as sleep difficulties, prevent functioning at normal daily activities. Previous studies have established a bilateral relationship between depression and insomnia that support a clinical importance in using insomnia screenings as an additional component to recognizing depression. This study analyzed which PSG parameters, from previous studies on depression, have the most common trend with depressed subjects compared to normal controls. A literature search on MEDLINE was utilized to gather the sleep studies that focused on depression and PSG parameters. The data was compiled to determine the common PSG parameters that provided significant evidence to support a trend between depressed and normal participants. This study identified nine parameters with trends that were commonly found in the studies: sleep latency, sleep efficiency, WASO, TST/TSA, duration in N2, SWS, delta sleep ratio, REM latency, and REM density. Of these
parameters, sleep latency, amount of SWS, REM latency, delta sleep ratio, and alpha-delta sleep warranted further investigation in a clinical setting.
An experimental component has been developed to investigate clinically the importance of the PSG parameters gathered from this study. The research will focus on determining PSG parameter trends in a clinical setting of a sleep lab. A BDI-II will be administered before a baseline sleep PSG is acquired. The BDI-II score will be analyzed in relation to the PSG obtained for each subject. The clinical study is in the BUMC IRB approval process and has been conditionally approved pending amendments to the original application
