The utility of the REM latency test in psychiatric diagnosis: A study of 81 depressed outpatients

• Published in: Psychiatry research 1982-08, Vol.7 (1), p.101-110
• Main Authors: Akiskal, Hagop S., Lemmi, Helio, Yerevanian, Boghos, King, Doug, Belluomini, Joe
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adult; Age Factors; biologic marker; depression; Depressive Disorder - diagnosis; Depressive Disorder - psychology; Diagnosis, Differential; Female; Humans; Male; melancholia; Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; Reaction Time; REM latency; Sleep, REM
• ISSN: 0165-1781; 1872-7123
• DOI: 10.1016/0165-1781(82)90058-0

To examine the utility of the REM (rapid eye movement) latency test in identifying outpatient primary depressions, 81 consecutive referrals to a sleep disorders center were evaluated in a phenomenologic, sleep polygraphic, and psychometric study. Modified Feighner (St. Louis) diagnoses were definite primary depression ( n=19), probable primary depression ( n=30), depression chronologically secondary to preexisting psychiatric disorders ( n=19), and nonaffective psychiatric disorder ( n=13). There were 18 nonpsychiatric controls. REM latency less than 70 minutes on 2 consecutive nights detected 62% of primary depressions, discriminating them from the other diagnostic groups with 88% specificity. There were no false positives among controls. These data provided a 90% confidence for the diagnosis of primary depression in this outpatient sample. Requiring 2 consecutive nights of shortened REM latency appears to improve significantly the specificity of a test previously considered to have high sensitivity but relatively low specificity for depressive disorders.