Stability of cognition across wakefulness and dreams in psychotic major depression.
Simone Cavallotti, Anna Castelnovo, Rebecca Ranieri, Armando D'Agostino
Psychiatry Research January 30, 2014 DOI: 10.1016/j.psychres.2014.01.033 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Case-control study Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Sample size | 22 |
| Population | 11 inpatients hospitalized for psychotic major depression and 11 age- and sex-matched healthy controls |
| Measures | Bizarreness, Hall/Van de Castle scoring system |
| Topics | Depression Dreaming |
| Keywords | Humans Case-control studies Single-blind method Fantasy Cognition Dreams Wakefulness Psychotic disorders Adolescent Middle aged Female Young adult Self report Psychosis Mood disorders Rem sleep Cognitive bizarreness |
| Key findings | Patients with psychotic major depression showed similar levels of cognitive bizarreness in their dreams and waking fantasy reports, unlike healthy controls, indicating stability of cognition across sleep and wakefulness. Their dream content also differed from controls' on happiness, apprehension, and dynamism, which the authors say reflects a sharp discontinuity with the depressive state. |
Abstract
Cognitive bizarreness has been shown to be equally elevated in the dream and waking mentation of acutely symptomatic inpatients diagnosed with affective and non-affective psychoses. Although some studies have reported on dream content in non-psychotic depression, no study has previously measured this formal aspect of cognition in patients hospitalized for Psychotic Major Depression (PMD). Sixty-five dreams and 154 waking fantasy reports were collected from 11 PMD inpatients and 11 age- and sex-matched healthy controls. All narrative reports were scored by judges blind to diagnosis in terms of formal aspects of cognition (Bizarreness). Dream content was also scored (Hall/Van de Castle scoring system). Unlike controls, PMD patients had similar levels of cognitive bizarreness in their dream and waking mentation. Dreams of PMD patients also differed from those of controls in terms of content variables. In particular, Happiness, Apprehension and Dynamism were found to differ between the two groups. Whereas dream content reflects a sharp discontinuity with the depressive state, cognitive bizarreness adequately measures the stability of cognition across dreams and wakefulness in PMD inpatients.
Comparable studies
Other observational and cohort studies on depression, most cited first.
| Study | Year | Design | Participants |
|---|---|---|---|
| Metacognitive awareness and prevention of relapse in depression: Empirical evidence. Residually depressed patients and nondepressed controls; recovered depressed patients | 2002 | Observational cohort with intervention components | |
| Psilocybin for treatment-resistant depression: fMRI-measured brain mechanisms. Patients with treatment-resistant depression | 2017 | Observational cohort | n = 19 |
| Antidepressant effects of a single dose of ayahuasca in patients with recurrent depression: a preliminary report Patients with a depressive disorder | 2015 | Observational study | |
| Concomitant BDNF and sleep slow wave changes indicate ketamine-induced plasticity in major depressive disorder Patients with treatment-resistant major depressive disorder | 2012 | Observational cohort | n = 30 |
| Altered peripheral immune profiles in treatment-resistant depression: response to ketamine and prediction of treatment outcome Healthy controls and actively depressed patients with treatment-resistant depression... | 2017 | Observational cohort | n = 59 |
Citations in the library
Cited by 6
- Enactive or inactive? Cranially envatted dream experience and the extended conscious mind Philosophical Explorations May 4, 2018
- How bizarre? A pluralist approach to dream content. Consciousness and Cognition July 1, 2018
- Arousal in Nocturnal Consciousness: How Dream- and Sleep-Experiences May Inform Us of Poor Sleep Quality, Stress, and Psychopathology. Frontiers in Psychology May 10, 2017
- Dream content and intrusive thoughts in Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder. Psychiatry Research October 30, 2016
- Free Energy and Virtual Reality in Neuroscience and Psychoanalysis: A Complexity Theory of Dreaming and Mental Disorder. Frontiers in Psychology 2016
and 1 more in the library
Cites 12
- Corollary Discharge, Hallucinations, and Dreaming Schizophrenia Bulletin October 7, 2010
- Dreaming under antidepressants: a systematic review on evidence in depressive patients and healthy volunteers. Sleep Medicine Reviews April 1, 2013
- The Dreaming Brain/Mind: A Role in Understanding Complex Mental Disorders? Frontiers in Psychiatry January 31, 2012
- Bizarreness in dream reports and waking fantasies of psychotic schizophrenic and manic patients: empirical evidences and theoretical consequences. Psychiatry Research March 24, 2011
- REM sleep and dreaming: towards a theory of protoconsciousness. Nature Reviews Neuroscience November 2009
and 7 more in the library