A psychophysiological investigation of the effects of a psychotropic agent (clozapine) upon sleep parameters of normal young adults
Hypnotic and sedative drugs have been regarded as the most expedient method for the treatment of insomnia in contemporary western culture and their prescription has increased dramatically (Karacan and Williams 1971; Oswald 1968). However, many of these drugs suppress REM sleep (Oswald 1968), cause death when taken in overdose (Johns 1975), produce dependence (Kales and Kales 1973), become relatively ineffective in the treatment of insomnia after chronic administration (Johns 1975) and the abrupt withdrawal after continuous administration may result in a drug withdrawal insomnia characterised by difficulty in falling asleep, an increased vividness in REM mentation as well as the occurrence of nightmares (Kales et al 1968(a)(b), 1969(a)(b)). Recent research has suggested that clozapine, a psychotropic agent, may have pronounced sleep inducing properties (Hemphill et al 1975; Ruch et al 1976; Gross and Langner 1966,1969; Berzewski et al 1969). However, its role as an hypnotic agent has yet to be systematically investigated. In the present study, therefore, the effects of clozapine upon the sleep patterns of twenty normal young adults were investigated during both short- and long-term administration at two different dose rates (25mg and 12,50mg/night respectively). In addition, the short-term effects of 12,50mg clozapine/night upon REM dream content were also investigated. The present study required a total of 2190 hours of recording over a period of 219 nights.
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