專家表示，緩解抑郁癥竟然是少睡覺？！

An analysis of 36 years of studies by the University of Pennsylvania suggests temporarily depriving patients of sleep can be effective in the short-term.

賓夕法尼亞大學實施了一項歷時36年的試驗，得出的結論顯示減少抑郁癥患者的睡眠時間在短期內可緩解抑郁癥。

Their research, published in the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, looked at 66 studies on people with depression who were deprived of sleep in a clinical setting.

這項研究發(fā)表在《臨床精神醫(yī)學雜志》(Journal of Clinical Psychiatry)上，共進行了66次，研究對象為抑郁癥患者，實驗在臨床條件下控制了患者的睡眠時間。

Sleep deprivation was found to temporarily improve symptoms in 50 per cent of patients. The review also found that partial sleep deprivation (three to four hours' sleep, followed by 20 to 21 hours of staying awake) and total sleep deprivation (being deprived of sleep for 36 hours) were equally effective.

減少睡眠時間在短期內緩解了一半患者的病情。將睡眠時間減少到3到4小時(其余20到21小時都是清醒的)，和讓患者在36小時內保持清醒的效果相同。

The results were the same whether or not the participants were also taking medication. Patients reported improvement in as little as 24 hours.

患者有無服藥都不會影響實驗。但是療效只持續(xù)了24小時。

The idea that depression can be helped by sleep deprivation has a long history.

減少睡眠時間能夠緩解抑郁癥的方法并不是最近才發(fā)現(xiàn)的。

Nearly 200 years ago, a German psychiatrist, Johann Christian August Heinroth, successfully experimented with it as a treatment for what he described as 'melancholia', while 'wake therapy' — a combination of long periods of wakefulness interjected with long recovery 'sleeps' — is a technique used by some U.S. psychiatrists and sleep doctors to help treat chronic depression.

大概兩百年前，德國一位名叫約翰·克瑞斯宸·阿古斯特·赫恩瑞斯的精神科醫(yī)生就成功做了實驗，證明抑郁癥可以通過減少睡眠時間得以治療。而美國眾多精神科醫(yī)生使用的是“清醒治療法”，讓患者保持長時間的清醒后進行長時間的修復睡眠，以此來治療慢性抑郁癥。

However, the researchers involved in the latest study say that it is a temporary solution and more work needs to be done to identify exactly how sleep deprivation helps depression.

但是，最近的實驗發(fā)現(xiàn)，這種方法只是短暫性的，要弄明白睡眠缺失是如何緩解抑郁癥還需要很多工作。

One theory is that people with depression have disturbed circadian rhythms — the body's 'internal clock' — and skipping a sleep cycle can reset this and temporarily relieve symptoms.

有種說法是抑郁癥患者的生物鐘混亂，長時間保持清醒可調整生物鐘，暫時緩解病癥。.

Commenting on the research, Dr Nik Gkampranis, a consultant psychiatrist and sleep specialist at Spire Healthcare, says: ‘Many people with depression have more REM sleep — where your brain is more active and you tend to dream vividly — than those without the condition.

精神科咨詢師、睡眠專家尼克·科姆比瑞恩醫(yī)生在尖端醫(yī)療中心(Spire Healthcare)對這項實驗做出了評價：“很多抑郁癥患者夜間做夢時眼睛會快速移動，這說明他們的大腦比非抑郁癥患者更加活躍、做夢更頻繁。

‘Evidence also suggests that this is only a temporary fix, so if it is implemented as a therapy, I’d advise it to be used in conjunction with other treatments, for example antidepressants or CBT (cognitive behavioural therapy).’

實驗也表明這種治療方法不具有長期效果，如果要落實這種方法，我建議同時使用其他方法，比如服用抗抑郁藥、進行意識行為治療。”