Therapeutic sleep deprivation in a depressed patient: prolongation of response with concurrent thyroxine

A 53-year-old woman with major depression was studied throughout 7 trials of therapeutic sleep deprivation (SD). Under conditions where the patients was either medication-free or receiving antidepressant therapy, improvement with SD was followed by full relapse on returning to sleep. Four SD sessions conducted while the patient was receiving thyroxine each resulted in remission, sustained for several days. These results suggest that the beneficial effects of SD may be mediated by thyroid hormones, or associated activity in the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis.