SLEEP QUALITY IN GERIATRIC DEPRESSED-PATIENTS - COMPARISON WITH ELDERLY DEMENTED PATIENTS AND NORMAL CONTROLS AND THE EFFECTS OF MOCLOBEMIDE

The present study evaluated the effects of treatment with 400 mg Moclobemide in comparison with placebo on sleep quality and morning activity levels of geriatric depressed patients. In addition, sleep quality of these patients was compared to that of three groups of elderly patients, multi-infarct dementia, Alzheimer type dementia and normal elderly controls. Sleep quality, assessed by continuous actigraphic monitoring, was not affected by moclobemide. Morning levels of activity, however, were found to be significantly increased only in the moclobemide group. Comparing the measures of sleep quality derived from the actigraphic recordings between the four groups of elderly people revealed that patients with multi-infarct dementia had significantly lower sleep quality measures than the other three groups. There were no statistically significant differences for any of the sleep quality measures between the geriatric depressed patients and the normal controls.