Abstract
Although nocturnal polysomnography (PSG) has been studied in several anxiety disorders (OCD, panic disorder, PTSD, and social phobia), to our knowledge no sleep studies of patients with simple phobia have been reported. PSG data were analyzed retrospectively to explore for possible effects of simple phobia on sleep architecture. Our database contained no subjects with simple phobia alone but yielded 19 subjects with major depression and comorbid simple phobia. These subjects were compared to a group of 25 patients with major depression alone. Subjects were matched as closely as possible for severity of depression based on DSM-III & DSM-III-R codes. All subjects had been free of psychotropic medications at least 2 weeks at the time of the study. Sleep records were available for 16 depressed simple phobics and 25 pure depressives. All standard sleep variables were analyzed using one-way ANOVA (SPSS.) REM percentage tended to be greater in depressed simple phobics than in pure depressives (25.71±7.33 vs. 22.05±6.37; F=2.865, p=.099, df=1,39.) The number of depressed simple phobics precluded analysis of effects of other comorbid diagnoses on sleep. Further studies are needed to clarify the effects of simple phobia on sleep and their interactions with effects of depression on sleep. Significant findings in future studies could conceivably generate further hypotheses and help to elucidate pathophysiology of simple phobia.
(Supported in part by NIMH grante MH18399 & MH30914 & by VA Research Service.)
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Clark, C., Gillin, J. & Golshan, S. Increased REM Percent in Depressives with Comorbid Simple Phobia as Compared to Pure Depressives. Neuropsychopharmacol 11, 267 (1994). https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.npp.1380142
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.npp.1380142