Citation

Tavakoli P, Lanthier M, Porteous M, Boafo A, De Koninck J, Robillard R. Front. Psychiatry 2022; 13.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2022, Frontiers Media)

DOI

10.3389/fpsyt.2022.920789

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Suicide is the second leading cause of death in adolescents. Sleep disturbances could alter inhibitory processes and contribute to dangerous behaviors in this critical developmental period. Adolescents in suicidal crisis have been shown to have lighter sleep compared to healthy controls. Additionally, suicidal adolescents have lower neural resources mobilized by emotionally charged inhibition processing. The present exploratory study aimed to determine how sleep architecture in suicidal adolescents may relate to inhibition processing in response to emotional stimuli.

METHODS: Ten adolescents between 12 and 17 years of age with a diagnosis of major depressive disorder and who attempted suicide were recruited while hospitalized for a suicidal crisis in a psychiatric inpatient unit. Event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded prior to bedtime during a Go/NoGo task involving pictures of sad, happy, and neutral faces. Polysomnography was then recorded throughout the night. Pearson correlations were conducted to investigate how inhibition performance and ERP parameters reflecting inhibition processing (i.e., P3d and N2d derived from difference waveform calculated as NoGo minus Go trials) relate to sleep architecture.

RESULTS: Poorer inhibition accuracy in response to emotional stimuli was significantly correlated with shorter REM sleep latency, higher REM sleep, and more frequent nocturnal awakenings. The P3d in response to sad faces was negatively correlated with NREM2 sleep and positively correlated with NREM3 sleep. No such association with the P3d was found for happy or neutral stimuli. There were no significant correlations for the N2d.

CONCLUSION: Altered sleep in adolescents with depression who are in a suicidal crisisis associated with behavioral inhibition difficulties and fewer neural resources mobilized by inhibitory processes in emotionally charged contexts. This highlights the importance of addressing sleep disturbances while managing suicidal crises in adolescents. Copyright © 2022 Tavakoli, Lanthier, Porteous, Boafo, De Koninck and Robillard.

Language: en

Keywords

adolescent; human; suicide; female; male; adolescence; sleep; suicide attempt; major depression; emotion regulation; controlled study; anticonvulsive agent; antidepressant agent; clinical article; psychiatric department; REM sleep; hospital patient; cohort analysis; atypical antipsychotic agent; melatonin; central stimulant agent; mood stabilizer; slow wave sleep; Article; exploratory research; polysomnography; event related potential; waveform; pediatric patient; emotional processing; inhibition; negative valence; positive valence; bedtime; event related potentials; Go No Go task; nocturnal awakening; REM sleep latency; stage 2 sleep