Röschke J, Mann K, Aldenhoff J B, Benkert O
Department of Psychiatry, University of Mainz, Germany.
Eur Neuropsychopharmacol. 1994 Mar;4(1):21-30. doi: 10.1016/0924-977x(94)90311-5.
Zopiclone, a non-benzodiazepine, has been shown to be efficient in the treatment of transient, short-term or chronic sleep disorders. Apart from its hypnotic effects zopiclone has anxiolytic, anticonvulsant and myorelaxant properties and is therefore hardly distinguishable from benzodiazepines. Dependence liability and discontinuation effects have been reported to be less pronounced. Therefore zopiclone seems to be a hypnotic drug which may cause fewer side effects than conventional benzodiazepines. From the electrophysiological point of view one requires from a hypnotic drug the induction of a physiological sleep pattern as well as no alterations of information processing by the brain. The aim of the present study was to investigate the subchronic effect of zopiclone medication on some functional properties of the sleep EEG in healthy subjects. In order to get better insight into the principles of information processing by the brain during sleep and its alterations under the influence of zopiclone we applied some tools from linear system theory to sleep EEG data. For this purpose we investigated late components of auditory and visual evoked potentials during different sleep stages and calculated from these the so-called amplitude-frequency characteristic of the brain. This function describes the relationship between an input and the output of the investigated system. The main advantage of this kind of analysis is that it enables one to detect functional differences during sleep stages. This information can hardly be obtained from conventional spectral analysis. As a result we could demonstrate that under subchronic zopiclone medication no quantitative or qualitative alterations of the functional sleep EEG properties concerning the transfer properties of the brain under auditory and visual stimulation were detectable.
佐匹克隆是一种非苯二氮䓬类药物，已被证明在治疗短暂性、短期或慢性睡眠障碍方面有效。除催眠作用外，佐匹克隆还具有抗焦虑、抗惊厥和肌松作用，因此与苯二氮䓬类药物几乎没有区别。据报道，其依赖性和戒断效应不那么明显。因此，佐匹克隆似乎是一种催眠药物，其副作用可能比传统苯二氮䓬类药物少。从电生理学角度来看，一种催眠药物需要诱导出生理睡眠模式，并且不会改变大脑的信息处理过程。本研究的目的是调查佐匹克隆药物对健康受试者睡眠脑电图某些功能特性的亚慢性影响。为了更好地了解睡眠期间大脑信息处理的原理及其在佐匹克隆影响下的变化，我们将线性系统理论的一些工具应用于睡眠脑电图数据。为此，我们研究了不同睡眠阶段听觉和视觉诱发电位的晚期成分，并据此计算出大脑的所谓振幅频率特性。该函数描述了被研究系统输入与输出之间的关系。这种分析的主要优点是能够检测睡眠阶段的功能差异。从传统频谱分析中很难获得这些信息。结果我们证明，在亚慢性佐匹克隆药物治疗下，未检测到与听觉和视觉刺激下大脑传递特性相关的功能性睡眠脑电图特性的定量或定性变化。
