Key clinical point: Prefrontal theta cordance on quantitative EEG during tonic REM sleep shows promise as an early biomarker of clinical response to antidepressant medication.

Major finding: Patients who were switched to a different antidepressant after 1 week based upon the EEG-derived biomarker result had an 86% treatment response rate at week 5, compared with 20% in controls whose psychiatrists were unaware of the sleep study findings.

Study details: This was a prospective, randomized, controlled trial including 37 patients hospitalized for major depressive disorder.

Disclosures: The presenter reported having no financial conflicts regarding the study, funded by the Psychiatric University Hospital of Basel.