Sleep disorders in patients with severe mental depression: double-blind placebo-controlled evaluation of the value of pipamperone (Dipiperon).

Pipamperone was compared double-blindly with placebo to evaluate its capacity to relieve sleep disorders in 40 depressive inpatients. At the end of the 1-week trial, most of the items relating to sleep disturbances had improved significantly in the 24 patients of the pipamperone group whereas only a few items showed such a change in the control group. On the Hamilton depression scale, improvement in the pipamperone patients was also superior to that in the placebo group as regards the items "depressed mood" and "insight". The adequate median daily dose of pipamperone appeared to be 80 mg (2 tablets).