1113 THE EFFECTS OF ESZOPICLONE ON SLEEP SPINDLES AND MEMORY CONSOLIDATION IN SCHIZOPHRENIA: A DOUBLE-BLIND RANDOMIZED TRIAL

Abstract

Patients with schizophrenia (SZ) have a specific deficit in sleep spindles that correlates with impaired memory consolidation and symptom severity. In a small placebo-controlled pilot study we found that eszopiclone, a non-benzodiazepine hypnotic drug that acts on GABAA receptors in the thalamus where sleep spindles are generated, increased spindles in SZ but its effect on memory consolidation was not significant. Here we employed a more powerful cross-over design and recruited a larger sample to investigate the effects of eszopiclone on spindle activity and sleep-dependent memory consolidation.Chronic, medicated patients with SZ (n=26) and demographically-matched healthy controls (n=29) were randomly assigned to either placebo first or 3 mg of eszopiclone first conditions separated by one week. Each condition included two consecutive nights of high-density EEG polysomnography. Consolidation of motor procedural memory was measured by the motor sequence task (MST). Participants were trained before sleep on the second night and tested upon awakening. Spindles were detected by a wavelet-based algorithm and examined in relation to overnight changes in MST performance.On placebo, patients showed consistent, widespread reductions in spindle density that reached significance in a parietal cluster(p=.04). In both groups, eszopiclone increased spindle density across channels(p