Differential time course of antidepressant effects after sleep deprivation, ECT, and carbamazepine: clinical and theoretical implications

The pattern and time course of antidepressant response to different treatment modalities provide important clinical information and hints about underlying neurobiological mechanisms. Depressed patients who responded to 1 night's sleep deprivation (11 of 33 patients) showed maximal improvement on day 1 and deterioration in mood thereafter. In contrast, slower onset and more sustained effects were observed following carbamazepine (12 of 37) or electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) (8 of 8). Nearly maximal improvement required about 2 weeks for ECT and 3 weeks for carbamazepine. Possible differential or common biological mechanisms with differential times of action are implied by these data, which are of importance to the neuroscientist attempting to uncover neural substrates of antidepressant response and the clinician attempting to find rapid onset, yet sustained antidepressant treatments.