Psychiatry Research, 38:201-214 Elsevier 201 Electroencephalographic Sleep Measures in Prepubertal Depression zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcbaZYXWVUTSRQPONMLKJIHGFEDCBA Ronald E. Dahl, Neal D. Ryan, Boris Birmaher, Mayadah Al-Shabbout, Douglas E. Williamson, Martin Neidig, Beverly Nelson, and Joaquim Puig-Antich Received March 26, 1991; revised version received July 5, 1991; accepted June 4, 1991. zyxwvutsrqponml Abstract. Two nights of electroencephalographic (EEG) sleep recording were performed in a group of prepubertal subjects with major depressive disorder (MDD) (n = 36, mean age = 10.4, SD = 1.5) and age-matched normal control children (n = 18, mean age q 10. I, SD = 1.6). All subjects were medically healthy and free of medications at the time of the study. There were no significant group differences for any major sleep variable after the initial adaptation night in this study. One subgroup of MDD subjects (n q 8) showed reduced REM latency on both recording nights, decreased stage 4 sleep, and increased REM time; this subgroup had significantly higher severity scores for depression but did not other- wise appear to be clinically distinct from the rest of the MDD subjects. Overall, the results indicate that the EEG sleep changes associated with depression in adults occurred less frequently in prepubertal MDD subjects. Key Words. Depression, sleep, rapid eye movement latency, prepubertal, psycho- biology. In 1987our group undertook a large integrated study of the neurobiology of major depression with prepubertal onset, designed to probe specific neurotransmitter sys- tems through the use of pharmacologic challenges and their effects on pituitary hormones, neurotransmitters (and their metabolites), and sleep. This article reports the results of electroencephalographic (EEG) sleep measures obtained on the first 2 nights of the protocol (without any pharmacologic challenges). We compared a group of prepubertal children with major depressive disorder (MDD) to normal control children who were free of any lifetime Axis I psychiatric disorder and who, addition- ally, by family study had very low rates of depression in their families (“supernormals”). The sleep component of this study was driven by the apparent discrepancies across EEG sleep studies in child and adolescent depression. Adults with MDD (compared with normal controls) frequently show decreased delta sleep, reduced rapid eye Ronald E. Dahl, M.D., is Assistant Professor of Psychiatry and Pediatrics; Neal D. Ryan, M.D., is Associate Professor of Psychiatry; Boris Birmaher, M.D., is Assistant Professor of Psychiatry; Mayadah Al-Shabbout, M.A., is Statistician; Douglas E. Williamson, B.A., is a Ph.D. student in Psychiatric Epidemiology; Martin Neidig, MS., is Research Associate; Beverly Nelson, R.N., is Clinical Director of the Child and Adolescent Sleep Laboratory; and Joaquim Puig-Antich, M.D. (deceased), was Professor, Department of Psychiatry, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Pittsburgh, PA. (Reprint requests to Dr. R.E. Dahl, Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic, 381 I O’Hara St., Rm. E733, Pittsburgh, PA 15213, USA.) 01651781/91/803.50 @ 1991 Elsevier Scientific Publishers Ireland Ltd.