Effects of Psychotropic Drugs on Quantitative EEG among Patients with Schizophrenia-spectrum Disorders

Abstract

ObjectiveWe examined how psychotropic medications affected quantitative EEG (qEEG) results among patients with a schizophrenia-spectrum disorder.MethodsThe drugs were clustered into nine groups depending on their mechanism. We hypothesized that drugs would affect the relative power shown in qEEG results independently and investigated the effect of each drug group on relative power using multiple linear regression analysis and independent samples t-tests.ResultsWe found that antipsychotics other than clozapine induced an increase in the relative power of alpha activity. Clozapine markedly increased slow waves and decreased alpha activity in the occipital area. The main findings for antidepressants and antiepileptic drugs were the beta increment and lithium increased the power of delta and theta activity. However, we found no evident changes in power due to benzodiazepine.ConclusionOur results are generally consistent with previous pharmaco-EEG studies, despite some differences. Therefore, the EEG effect in each drug group could be singled out even under the polypharmacy condition, with the possible exception of benzodiazepines. Our results support using a new methodological approach to identify the qEEG effects of various psychotropic drugs in clinical settings.

Reduction in Alpha Peak Frequency and Coherence on Quantitative Electroencephalography in Patients with Schizophrenia

“… 28 Also, only a few participants were taking clozapine in this study, which is known to affect the QEEG profile. 29 Furthermore, when additional analyses were performed after excluding the patients who were taking clozapine, the significance of the results did not change. The second limitation is that the patient group was categorized only by the schizophrenia diagnosis, and their symptoms or duration of illness were not considered.…”

Objective markers for sleep propensity: comparison between the Multiple Sleep Latency Test and the Vigilance Algorithm Leipzig

“…Further, it has to be noted that several psychopharmacological drugs impact on the amplitude and frequency spectrum of the resting EEG. While neuroleptic drugs such as clozapine and the mood stabilizer lithium lead to increased delta-and theta-band activity (Hyun et al, 2011;Schulz et al, 2000), sedative drugs such as benzodiazepines and barbiturates and also antidepressants can lead to a remarkable increase of beta activity (Joy et al, 1971), especially at frontal brain areas. Because the VIGALL algorithm mainly depends on spatiotemporal features of the EEG, the interpretation of results from subjects that have been prescribed psychopharmacological medication should be done with caution.…”

Brain oscillations in bipolar disorder and lithium-induced changes

“…It has been consistently shown that lithium enhances resting-state delta and theta oscillations in spontaneous EEG studies of patients with bipolar disorder 34 – 36 or in healthy volunteers. 37 , 38 In another study using quantitative EEG to evaluate the effects of lithium alone and in combination with other therapies on resting EEG, lithium administration increased the amplitudes of delta, theta, alpha, and beta waves, showing a correlation between serum lithium levels and interhemispheric coherence, delta, and beta-2 (18–30 Hz) values, whereas risperidone and carbamazepine increased the amplitudes of alpha and beta-1 (13–18 Hz) frequencies.…”