Panic disorder and major depression: a comparative electroencephalographic sleep study.

Family studies suggest some common etiological factors in panic disorder and depression. The observation of characteristic depression-like polysomnographic alterations in panic disorder patients would further underline the assumed biological interface between the two psychiatric disorders. In a polysomnographic study of 22 inpatients with panic disorder, 12 inpatients with major depression, and 12 control subjects, we found that both groups of patients had one major feature of depression-like sleep: a shortened rapid eye movement (REM) latency. However, the patterns of the first hours of polysomnography showed more differences than similarities between these psychiatric disorders, indicating that the shortened REM latency apparently is merely a common final pathway of different alterations in sleep regulation. Our findings, therefore, provide more evidence against than for a significant biological interface between panic disorder and depression.