Sleep deprivation hastens the antidepressant action of fluoxetine

Among ten bipolar depressed patients admitted to our psychiatric ward, five patients were treated with fluoxetine alone and five subjects were treated with fluoxetine in association with total sleep deprivation (TSD) in order to evaluate the effect of the interaction between the administration of the serotonergic antidepressant compound fluoxetine and repeated cycles of TSD. Patients treated with fluoxetine plus repeated TSD showed a faster amelioration of depressive symptomatology compared with the other group. We discuss our findings hypothesizing an enhancement in dopaminergic and possibly in serotonergic transmission due to repeated TSD adding to the increase in serotonergic transmission due to fluoxetine medication.