应激在抑郁症失眠中的作用和常用应激动物模型的睡眠特点

抑郁症导致的失眠常表现为睡眠中断和早醒, 慢波睡眠 (slow wave sleep, SWS) 减少或消失以及快速动眼 (rapid eye movement, REM) 睡眠潜伏期缩短。这些异常特征与应激引起的下丘脑-垂体-肾上腺 (hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal, HPA) 轴去抑制亢进导致的睡眠异常极为相似, 提示两者之间可能有密切的联系。因此由应激引起的动物模型, 如创伤后应激障碍和慢性温和不可预知应激等模型, 可用来评价抗抑郁和改善睡眠的药物, 并为深入研究抑郁及伴发的失眠机制提供比较可靠的平台。本文重点阐述抑郁症失眠的特点、可能的病理生理机制、常用应激动物模型的建立方法并分析其睡眠结构。

Role of stress in depression insomnia and sleep characteristics of commonly used animal stress models

Depression and insomnia are intimately related.  Depressed patients usually manifest sleep discontinuity and early awakening, reduced or no slow wave sleep (SWS) and shortened latency of rapid eye movement (REM) sleep.  These sleep abnormalities are very similar to those caused by over activated hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis with stress.  Therefore, the animal models developed by post-traumatic stress disorder or chronic unpredictable mild stress could be used to evaluate drugs which have effects of both anti-depression and improvement of sleep quality, and to provide a more reliable platform for further studis on the mechanisms of depression and accompanied insomnia.  This review mainly focuses on the typical features of sleep disturbance of depression, possible pathophysiological mechanisms, establishment of animal stress models and analysis of their abnormal sleep characteristics.