The effect of trimipramine on dream recall and dream emotions in depressive outpatients.
Psychiatry Research May 30, 2009 Michael Schredl, Mathias Berger, Dieter Riemann
Trimipramine, a sedating tricyclic antidepressant effective for both depression and primary insomnia, does not affect rapid eye movement sleep unlike most other antidepressants. In a large sample of 3,926 depressive outpatients, treatment over four weeks produced a considerable shift in dream emotions toward the positive end of the scale, paralleling a decrease in symptom severity. The effect on dream recall was small and may be explained by a reduction in negatively toned dreams. These findings support the continuity hypothesis of dreaming, showing a close link between waking-life symptomatology and negative dream emotions.