Analysis of sleep EEG microstructure in subchronic paroxetine treatment of healthy subjects

Abstract

Paroxetine is a selective and potent serotonin reuptake inhibitor and its efficacy for the treatment of depression has been proven. Under acute and subchronical treatment regimens, disturbances of the regular sleep pattern are a reported side effect of the drug. The present study was therefore performed to investigate the impact of subchronic treatment with the selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor paroxetine on the microstructure of the sleep EEG. The study especially addressed the question of subchronic effects of paroxetine medication (30 mg/day) in eight healthy male volunteers in a double blind, placebo-controlled crossover design. Conventional sleep EEG parameters and a spectral power analysis for different sleep stages after 4 weeks of treatment were computed. Additionally, the correlation of certain EEG rhythms across the night was calculated in order to detect subtle dynamical EEG alterations, not necessarily obvious when regarding conventional EEG analysis. Although we could not detect any alterations of the spectral power values in certain frequency bands either during NREM nor during REM sleep following subchronic paroxetine medication, the dynamical EEG attributes across the night revealed a significant enhancement of the correlation between certain EEG rhythms mainly during NREM sleep.

Changes of Sleep Architecture, Spectral Composition of Sleep EEG, the Nocturnal Secretion of Cortisol, ACTH, GH, Prolactin, Melatonin, Ghrelin, and Leptin, and the DEX-CRH Test in Depressed Patients during Treatment with Mirtazapine

“…Treatment with citalopram resulted in suppression of spectral power in the 8-9 Hz range. In these studies, no influence of SSRIs on delta power was observed (Röschke et al, 1997;Murck et al, 2003). 5-HT antagonists at presynaptic serotonergic 5-HT1A autoreceptors enhance serotonin release by suppression of the inhibitory effect of 5-HT1A autoreceptors on raphe nuclei neurons (Sharp et al, 1989).…”

“…No alterations of the spectral composition of sleep EEG were found during subchronic treatment with paroxetine in healthy subjects (Röschke et al, 1997). Another study in depressed male therapy responders showed a decline of power in the higher frequency sigma range during treatment with paroxetine as well as tianeptine, which enhances serotonin reuptake (Murck et al, 2003).…”

Fluoxetine and Sleep EEG Effects of a Single Dose, Subchronic Treatment, and Discontinuation in Healthy Subjects

“…Specific spectral EEG effects of antidepressants have been reported by several authors (Tarn et al 1993;Saletu and Grünberger 1985;Patat et al 1998;Fischer et al 1986;Yamadera et al 1987;Saletu et al 1991;Röschke et al 1997); furthermore, there is evidence for a link between sleep regulation and depression, with sleep homeostasis being routinely characterized by spectral EEG parameters (Borbély et al 1988;Achermann et al 1993).…”

Comparison of Different Methods for the Evaluation of Treatment Effects from the Sleep EEG of Patients with Major Depression

“…In case of the spectrum analysis, we do not expect to easily achieve further significant improvements, because much effort in this respect already has been made in many previous studies [25,26]. Other studies have shown that the delta/beta ratio provides the most information about the alterations of the sleep structure [27].…”