Therapeutic Sleep Deprivation for Depression in Children

Abstract

Therapeutic sleep deprivation can result in an immediate and dramatic improvement in some patients with major depressive episodes. This procedure has not been reported for the treatment of childhood depression. The application of therapeutic sleep deprivation is described for a 12‐year‐old prepubertal boy in whom conventional antidepressant therapy was complicated by problematic side effects. © 1987, The American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. All rights reserved.