Citation

Goldschmied JR, Gehrman P. Curr. Psychiatry Rep. 2019; 21(5): e30.

Affiliation

Center for Sleep and Circadian Neurobiology, University of Pennsylvania, 125 S.31st St., Philadelphia, PA, 19104, USA.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2019, Holtzbrinck Springer Nature Publishing Group)

DOI

10.1007/s11920-019-1013-4

PMID

30880367

Abstract

PURPOSE OF REVIEW: In this review, we aim to integrate the most recent research highlighting alterations in sleep slow-wave activity (SWA), and impairments in neuroplasticity in major depressive disorder (MDD) into a novel model of disorder maintenance. RECENT FINDINGS: Sleep homeostasis has been shown to be impaired in MDD, with a subset of individuals also demonstrating impaired SWA. SWA is considered a marker of the homeostatic regulation of sleep, and is implicated in the downscaling of synaptic strength in the context of maintaining homeostatic plasticity. Individuals with MDD have been shown to exhibit impairments in both neural plasticity such as loss of dendritic branching, and synaptic plasticity such as decreased long-term potentiation-dependent learning and memory. Alterations in the homeostatic regulation of sleep, SWA, and synaptic plasticity in MDD suggest an underlying impairment in the modulation of synaptic strength. One candidate mechanism for this impairment is AMPA receptor trafficking.

Language: en

Keywords

Major depressive disorder; Mood; Sleep; Slow-wave activity; Synaptic downscaling; Synaptic strength