Prediction of lofepramine-response in depression based on response to partial sleep deprivation

The improvement of depression after partial sleep deprivation in the second half of the night (sd) is tested for its predictory power for the therapeutical efficacy of pharmacotherapy with lofepramine. In a group of 15 patients with depression, we found that in contradiction to the findings of Wirz-Justice and collaborators (1976), the velocity of the antidepressive effect of sd has no predictive value. On the other hand, the amount of depression improvement after sd is of predictive value. This is independent of the time of occurrence of the improvement peak after sd. An improvement of more than 35% measured in the Bf-S or in the H.DRS on the first or the second day after sd is highly predictive for a good response to three weeks of 210 mg lofepramine per day (p = .05).