Zur Voraussage des Therapieerfolgs mit Antidepressiva:Sind kurze REM-Latenzen diagnostisch und prognostisch zuverlässige Merkmale?

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Abstract
Brief REM latencies, i.e. abnormally short intervals between sleep onset and the occurrence of the first REM period in polygraphic recordings of night sleep, have been proposed in recent years to be of diagnostic value for primary and endogenous depressions. It was also postulated that therapeutic success of antidepressant drugs can be predicted from this characteristic. Analysis of recent studies shows, however, that none of these claims can be maintained: although brief REM latencies do occur more frequently in middle-aged and elderly depressed patients than in healthy controls, this--strongly age-dependent-feature is neither sensitive to nor specific of depressions and therefore unlikely to facilitate their diagnosis. Similarly, there are no valid indications that brief REM latencies might predict success or failure of antidepressant drug treatment. Heterogeneous results of the studies reviewed are probably due to inhomogeneous selection of patient and control groups, variable periods of withdrawal of previous medication and other procedural differences.

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