Sadeghniiat-Haghighi, A. Najafi, B. Adib1, Z.B. Alemohammad, S. Akbarpour,

Occupational Sleep Research Center, Baharloo Hospital,

Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran, Islamic Republic of

Introduction: Alteration in Rapid Eye Movement (REM) as a sleep phase has been related to depression in clinical researches, it depends to some factors such as age, sex and race. There is limited evidence regarding the association of REM changes and depressed mood among Iranian patients So far.

Materials and methods: Current study was conducted among 48 patients referred to Baharloo sleep center for polysomnography. Twenty-three participants were assigned to case group (Depressed) and control group (non-depressed) based on their BDI (Beck depression Inventory II) score. We assessed REM latency, 1st duration of REM phase, total duration of REM cycles and REM density by administrating polysomnography for one night. Results: Longer duration of REM phase (p: 0.026) the last REM period density (p: 0.057) were related to depression after age-sex adjustment and more REM periods number in depressed(p: 0.009).

Conclusions: Our study suggests that rapid eye movement density could be a polysomnographic marker of depression.