Sleep disturbance in unipolar and bipolar depression: relationship to psychiatric family history

Eighty depressed patients (40 bipolar and 40 unipolar) were personally interviewed in order to assess the relationship of disturbed sleep with psychiatric family history. Complaints of unsatisfactory sleep quantity and/or quality were more common among patients with a negative than among those with a positive family history for either any major psychiatric disorder (74.5 vs. 43.3%, p < 0.01) or only a mood disorder (68.4 vs. 43.5%, p < 0.05); this was more pronounced in bipolar patients. Results were confirmed when demographic variables and clinical characteristics of the disease were taken into consideration through the use of multiple logistic regression analysis. It is, thus, suggested that the mechanisms underlying disturbed sleep during a major depressive episode are different to those associated with the familial predisposition for depression.