DOES SLEEP EEG DATA DISTINGUISH BETWEEN UP, BPI OR BPII MAJOR DEPRESSIONS - AN AGE AND GENDER CONTROLLED-STUDY

Clinical characteristics and sleep EEG data of 14 unipolar (UPR), 14 b ipolar I(BPI) and 14 bipolar II (BPII) patients, matched for age and g ender, were investigated during a major depressive episode. We observe d a remarkable similarity in the clinical characteristics of the three samples and, concerning sleep EEG data, a trend to a higher percentag e of awakening among BPI patients. Pairwise comparisons of the three s ubgroups showed that only the Newcastle rating scale score reached sig nificant difference between BPI and UPR groups. We observed trends reg arding the difference of awakening both between BPI and BPII groups an d between BPI and UPR groups, difference of percentage of REM sleep be tween BPI and BPII groups and difference of Sleep Period Time between BPII and UPR groups. We also observed that the distribution of REM lat encies in the BP I subgroup was different from the two others. (C) 199 8 Elsevier Science B.V.