Sleep Disturbances and Suicidal Behavior in Patients With Major Depression

Abstract

Background: The purpose of this study was to examine the association between sleep disturbances and suicidal behavior in patients with major depression (N = 113). Method: The sleep symptomatology of each patient was ascertained from the Schedule for Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia (SADS) questions concerning sleep were retrospectively classified as having hypersomnia (N = 20), insomnia (N = 69), and no sleep disturbance (N = 24). The SADS suicide subscale was used to rate the severity of active suicidality. Results: The patients with hypersomnia and insomnia had significantly (p < .05) higher scores on the SADS suicide subscale than those without sleep disturbance. We also found that the patients with insomnia and hypersomnia were significantly (p < .001) more likely to become suicidal than the others. Conclusion: These data demonstrate that both insomnia and hypersomnia are associated with suicidal behavior in patients with major depression.