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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 d...

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Main Author: Touyz, Stephen William
Other Authors: Saayman, Graham
Format: Thesis
Language:English
Published: Department of Psychology 2015
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access_status_str Open Access
author Touyz, Stephen William
author2 Saayman, Graham
author_browse Saayman, Graham
Touyz, Stephen William
author_facet Saayman, Graham
Touyz, Stephen William
author_sort Touyz, Stephen William
collection Thesis
description 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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institution University of Cape Town (South Africa)
language eng
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license_str Not specified — see source repository
provenance_str_mv Harvested via OAI-PMH from UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository
publishDate 2015
publishDateRange 2015
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publisher Department of Psychology
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spelling oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/13851 A psychophysiological investigation of the effects of a psychotropic agent (clozapine) upon sleep parameters of normal young adults Touyz, Stephen William Saayman, Graham Psychology 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. 2015-09-14T08:10:54Z 2015-09-14T08:10:54Z 1976 Doctoral Thesis Doctoral PhD http://hdl.handle.net/11427/13851 eng application/pdf Department of Psychology Faculty of Humanities University of Cape Town
spellingShingle Psychology
Touyz, Stephen William
A psychophysiological investigation of the effects of a psychotropic agent (clozapine) upon sleep parameters of normal young adults
thesis_degree_str Doctoral
title A psychophysiological investigation of the effects of a psychotropic agent (clozapine) upon sleep parameters of normal young adults
title_full A psychophysiological investigation of the effects of a psychotropic agent (clozapine) upon sleep parameters of normal young adults
title_fullStr A psychophysiological investigation of the effects of a psychotropic agent (clozapine) upon sleep parameters of normal young adults
title_full_unstemmed A psychophysiological investigation of the effects of a psychotropic agent (clozapine) upon sleep parameters of normal young adults
title_short A psychophysiological investigation of the effects of a psychotropic agent (clozapine) upon sleep parameters of normal young adults
title_sort psychophysiological investigation of the effects of a psychotropic agent clozapine upon sleep parameters of normal young adults
topic Psychology
url http://hdl.handle.net/11427/13851
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