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Sleep and daytime sleepiness the next day following single night-time dose of fluvoxamine, dothiepin and placebo in normal volunteers

Psychopharmacology Unit, School of Medical Sciences, University of Bristol, Bristol BS8 1TD, UK; sue.wilson{at}bris.ac.uk

J. E. Bailey

Psychopharmacology Unit, School of Medical Sciences, University of Bristol, Bristol

C. Alford

Department of Psychology, University of West of England, St Matthias Campus, Fishponds, Bristol, UK

D. J. Nutt

Psychopharmacology Unit, School of Medical Sciences, University of Bristol, Bristol

To explore the effects of sedating and non-sedating antidepressants, we conducted a placebo-controlled, double-blind cross-over study in 12 normal subjects of the effects of a single night-time dose of fluvoxamine 100 mg, dothiepin 100 mg or placebo on night-time sleep recorded at home, and sleepiness and performance the following day. Night-time sleep was altered significantly by both drugs, with main effects on rapid eye movement (REM) sleep and sleep continuity. Dothiepin increased total sleep time, REM latency and stage 2 sleep and decreased arousals, wake after sleep onset and stage 1, whereas fluvoxamine decreased total sleep time and REM time and increased wake after sleep onset. Sleep latencies in daytime naps were significantly shorter for dothiepin and longer for fluvoxamine, showing that subjects were more sleepy when taking dothiepin. Electroencephalograms (EEG) performed during performance tasks failed to distinguish significantly between drugs. There were no significant differences between groups on our measures of tracking performance or reaction time; however, these tasks were designed primarily to provide a standard setting in which to monitor continuous EEG, and were unsuitable to detect sleepiness effects themselves. Saccadic eye movement velocity, acceleration and deceleration showed small non-significant changes after both drugs. Mood self ratings showed no significant differences among the groups. Subjective measures of night-time sleep reflected the objective measures of sleep continuity, and the items for difficulty and speed of wakening in the morning were significantly higher (i.e. more difficulty and slower) in the dothiepin group. The home-recorded sleep findings after fluvoxamine in this study were very similar to sleep laboratory studies with other antidepressant drugs, thus providing more validation of the home recording method.

Key Words: dothiepin • fluvoxamine • serotonin • sleep • sleepiness

Journal of Psychopharmacology, Vol. 14, No. 4, 378-386 (2000)
DOI: 10.1177/026988110001400420


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