1-deoxy-sphingolipid plasma levels are significantly elevated in DSPN. They are already detectable in early disease stages but do not correlate with the clinical course. Further knowledge on 1-deoxy-sphingolipids might lead to a better pathophysiological understanding and future treatment options in DSPN.

Reliability, validity and sensibility to variations over time were investigated for a German version of the Visual Analogue Mood Scale (VAS) Re-test reliability was high with r = .98. The correlation with the self-rating "Befindlichkeits-Skala" (Bf-S) was food with r = .79 whereas the correlation with the Hamilton-Depression-Rating-Scale only was r = .49. Sensitivity to mood changes over time was a good as with the Bf-S. According to these results the German version of the VAS can be used for the assessment of actual depressive mood. The main advantage of the scale is it's simplicity.

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lntroduetion80th Wirz-Justieeet al. (1976) and Fähndrieh (1983) found that those patients showing a day-I response to sleep deprivation proved to be responders to subsequent c10mipramine treatment (Clo), while those showing a day-2 response to sleep deprivation were shown to respond to maprotiline (Map). Amin (1978), Wirz-Justieeet al., (1979), and Höehli et al. (1986) could not replicate this finding. Thus, the assumption of "distinct biochemical subtypes" of depression remained controversial. Our study is an attempt to elucidate this problem by means of a vigilance-oriented analysis of the waking EEG which takes into account the time-dependent increase of subvigilant epochs. Material and MethodsAnalyzed were the resting EEGs (leads: F3-CZ, F4-CZ, Ol-CZ, 02-eZ) of 45 endogenously-