Skipping a night's sleep can be an effective short-term antidepressant for half of the patients suffering from a mood disorder, according to the results of a study by University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine scientists, published in the latest issue of the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry.
Reviewing more than 2,000 studies, the team examined data from a final group of 66 studies executed over a 36-year period to determine how responsive patients may be to different types of sleep deprivation.
However, once a person goes back to sleep, the depression returns.
Earlier, US medics determined that systematic lack of sleep increases the chances of fatal strokes in people with diabetes and heart problems who are advised to sleep at least six hours a day.
