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Sleep-Loss as a Possible Mediator of Diverse Causes of Mania

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Thomas A. Wehr*
Affiliation:
Clinical Psychobiology Branch Intramural Research Program, National Institute of Mental Health, 9000 Rockville Pike, Bethesda, Maryland USA 20892

Abstract

When sleep duration and mood were monitored longitudinally in a 59–year-old woman with bipolar illness, sleep loss appeared to mediate the triggering of mania by psychosocial and pharmacological precipitating factors. This interpretation was supported by observations that mania could repeatedly be induced experimentally by depriving her of sleep for one night. The patient's data illustrate how sleep-loss might be a preventable cause of mania in a variety of situations.

Type
Brief Reports
Copyright
Copyright © 1991 The Royal College of Psychiatrists 

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