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BRIEF RESEARCH REPORT article
Front. Psychiatry
Sec. Sleep Disorders
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2025.1449360
Uncovering Hidden Depression: The Critical Role of Depression Screening in Sleep Disorders at U.S. Sleep Centers
Provisionally accepted
Silvia Daccò 1,2,3*
Massimiliano Grassi 1,3
Zach Wolpe 3
Melissa Bruner 3 Daniela Caldirola 1,2
Giampaolo Robert Perna 1,2,3 Archie Defillo 3- 1 Department of Biomedical Sciences, Humanitas University, Pieve Emanuele, Italy
- 2 Personalized Medicine Center for Anxiety and Panic Disorders, Humanitas San Pio X Hospital, Milan, Italy
- 3 Clinical Research and Development Department, Medibio Limited, Savage, MN, United States
Introduction: Depression and sleep disorders are strongly linked, with sleep centers (SCs) reporting depressive symptoms in up to 63% of patients and depression diagnoses in 22%. Despite this, routine depression screening is not standard in SCs. This study aimed to identify patients meeting the criteria for a current major depressive episode (cMDE) among those self-reporting clinically significant depressive symptoms (CSDS) in U.S. SCs.Method: This retrospective sub-analysis of an ongoing multicenter trial included 147 adults (22–75 years) referred for sleep disorder evaluation. Participants underwent psychiatric assessments using the Mini-International Neuropsychiatric Interview and Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9), with CSDS defined as PHQ-9 ≥10. Descriptive statistics were compared between patients with/without a confirmed cMDE using non-parametric tests. Additional Mann-Whitney U tests assessed sleep characteristics by cMDE, major depressive disorder (MDD), and bipolar disorder (BD) (statistical significance, p < 0.05). Results: Of 147 patients, 57 (38.8%) had a PHQ-9 score ≥10. Among them, 23 (40.3%) were diagnosed with cMDE: 17 (29.8%) met cMDD criteria, and 6 (10.5%) had BD, type I. A significantly lower cMDE prevalence was observed in patients without CSDS. Sleep characteristics showed no significant differences except for a lower N3 percentage in cMDE. BD, type I was associated with higher obstructive sleep apnea comorbidity compared to cMDD.Discussion: Our findings suggest major depression prevalence in SCs is five times higher than in the general population, highlighting the need for routine depression screening and psychiatric confirmation. This also aids in identifying comorbidities and fostering tailored interventions to improve outcomes.
Keywords: Depression, screening, Sleep centers, Sleep Disorders, Patient health questionnaire 9, Mini-International Neuropsychiatric Interview
Received: 14 Jun 2024; Accepted: 21 Mar 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Daccò, Grassi, Wolpe, Bruner, Caldirola, Perna and Defillo. 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:
Silvia Daccò, Department of Biomedical Sciences, Humanitas University, Pieve Emanuele, Italy
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