ACTIGRAPHY CAN MEASURE ANTIDEPRESSANT-INDUCED DAYTIME SEDATION IN HEALTHY-VOLUNTEERS

Actigraphy is the continuous measurement of the motor component of beh aviour. A change in behaviour will result in a change in activity. Dru gs that are behaviourally toxic will cause changes in activity which c an be measured using an actigraph. It is hypothesized that a reduction in daytime activity is a measure of sedation. A study was conducted c omparing actigraphy with valid, reliable psychometric tests which are sensitive to the behaviourally toxic effects of psychoactive drugs. Th e study was designed to investigate whether actigraphy could accuratel y measure the daytime sedation associated with tricyclic antidepressan ts. The effects of fluvoxamine and dothiepin on behavioural activity a nd psychomotor abilities, in 12 healthy male volunteers, was investiga ted in a placebo-controlled, double-blind, crossover study. Subjects c ompleted a battery of psychometric tests prior to dosing then at 1, 2, 3, 4 and 6 h post dose. Actigraphy showed that dothiepin caused dayti me sedation, defined as a reduction in activity and this result was co nfirmed by the results from the psychometrics which showed that dothie pin impaired cognitive and psychomotor performance in the majority of the tests. These results show that actigraphy is capable of accurately measuring daytime sedation. (C) 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.