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BRIEF RESEARCH REPORT article

Front. Psychiatry
Sec. Schizophrenia
Volume 15 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2024.1456435

Poor Self-Reported Sleep is Associated with Prolonged White Matter T2 Relaxation in Psychotic Disorders

Provisionally accepted
Haluk Umit Yesilkaya Haluk Umit Yesilkaya 1,2Xi Chen Xi Chen 1,3Lauren Watford Lauren Watford 1Emma McCoy Emma McCoy 1Ilgin Genc Ilgin Genc 1Fei Du Fei Du 1,3Dost Ongur Dost Ongur 1,3Cagri Yuksel Cagri Yuksel 1,3*
  • 1 McLean Hospital, Belmont, United States
  • 2 Bakirkoy Training and Research Hospital for Psychiatry, Neurology and Neurosurgery, Istanbul, Türkiye
  • 3 Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, United States

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Background: Psychotic disorders are characterized by white matter (WM) abnormalities, however, their relationship with the various aspects of illness presentation remains unclear. Sleep disturbances are common in psychosis, and emerging evidence suggests that sleep plays a critical role in WM physiology. Therefore, it is plausible that sleep disturbances are associated with impaired WM integrity in these disorders. To test this hypothesis, we examined the association of self-reported sleep disturbances with WM transverse (T2) relaxation times in a cross-diagnostic sample of patients with psychosis. Methods: 28 patients with psychosis (11 schizophrenia spectrum disorders and 17 bipolar disorder with psychotic features) were included. Metabolite (N-acetyl aspartate, choline, and creatine) and water T2 relaxation times were measured in the anterior corona radiata at 4T. Sleep was evaluated using the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI). Results: PSQI total score showed a moderate to strong positive correlation with water T2 (r = 0.64, p<0.001). Linear regressions showed that this association was independent of the overall severity of depressive, manic, or psychotic symptoms. In our exploratory analysis, sleep disturbance was correlated with free water percentage, suggesting that increased extracellular water may be a mechanism underlying the association of disturbed sleep and prolonged water T2 relaxation. Conclusion: Our results highlight the connection between poor sleep and WM abnormalities in psychotic disorders. Future research using objective sleep measures and neuroimaging techniques suitable to probe free water is needed to further our insight into this relationship.

    Keywords: Sleep, white matter, T2 relaxation, Schizophrenia, Bipolar Disorder, psychosis

    Received: 28 Jun 2024; Accepted: 09 Dec 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Yesilkaya, Chen, Watford, McCoy, Genc, Du, Ongur and Yuksel. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Cagri Yuksel, McLean Hospital, Belmont, United States

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.