HFB2009: Comparing Two Research Articles on Depression and Sleep

This essay provides a comprehensive analysis of two research articles: "The effect of depression on sleep quality and the circadian rhythm of ambulatory blood pressure in older patients with hypertension" and "Effect of depression on sleep: Qualitative or quantitative?". The essay compares and contrasts the research aims, literature reviews, methodologies, and findings of both studies. The first article investigates the impact of depression severity on sleep patterns and the circadian rhythm of ambulatory blood pressure among patients with hypertension, while the second explores the impact of depression on sleep quality. The essay highlights the similarities and differences in the studies' approaches, including the use of different assessment tools like the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) and the Beck Depression Inventory II. The analysis reveals that both studies conclude a relationship between sleep quality and depression, with one study focusing on the effects of hypertension and age on sleep patterns. The essay also discusses the limitations of the studies and suggests avenues for future research, such as exploring the neurobiological underpinnings of the findings.

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Introduction
This essay will conduct a thorough analysis of the review of two articles, “The effect of
depression on sleep quality and the circadian rhythm of ambulatory blood pressure in older
patients with hypertension” and “Effect of depression on sleep: Qualitative or quantitative?”.
Critical comparison and anaylsis of the articles will be done for understanding the relevancy of
the topics with the reaserch aims.
Discussion
The research aim for the first study is to see whether or not severity of depression can
have an impact on sleeping patterns. While the aim of the other study is to identify the impact of
the depression over the quality of sleeping. To analyse the circadian rhythm of the ambulatory
blood pressure among the patients with essential hypertension. The contrast among these two
articles is that paper one highlights the effect of depression over sleep. The article assessed if
there lies some sleeping patterns among several severity of depression. While the second paper
aims to analyse the impact of depression over the quality of sleeping and circadian rhythm of
ambulatory blood pressure among elderly patients having hypertension.
The literature review of first study explains the neurobiological aspect of depression is
something that has been dealt with in existing literature. What has not been discussed in the
literature is how severity of depression can impact sleeping patterns and this gap in the literature
is discussed in the present study. While in the second study, there lies no relevant section of
literature review in this paper. This entire research paper was done over primary data collected.
The literature in both studies have shown how previous studies have not focused on how
depression can impact sleeping patterns. both discuss sleep pattern and quality, both take

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subjects for screening who suffer from a depressive disorder, both articles come to the
conclusion that there is a relation between sleep quality and depression and both articles use
statistical analysis tools to find out the results.
The literature review in one paper has focused on how depression is not a subject of
concern for scholars when analysing sleeping patterns while in the other paper, the focus is on
how there is a lacunae in literature with regard to analysis of sleeping patterns. The article by
Ma and Li take the effect of circadian rhythm of ambulatory blood pressure in patients with
essential hypertension into consideration while selecting the subjects for screening. One article
takes 73 old patients as subjects and the other one takes 60 subjects with major depressive
disorder and 40 subjects in the control group. Ma and Li talks use Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index
(PSQI) and the circadian rhythm of ambulatory blood pressure to compare between the non-
depressed (control) and depressed (case) group. The article by Gupta, Dahiya and Bhatia
uses Beck Depression Inventory II to assess depression severity.
The methodology of the reaserch articles can be ducussed as following. The data for the
first project was collected by conducting a brief study in the outpatient ward as located in a
specific medical college or hospital. The main objective behind the study is to see whether or not
subjective sleep differences can vary based on the intensity of the depression that a person
suffers from. As part of the given study a cross sectional assessment of sleep was undertaken.
The sample size comprised of 40 people suffering from major depressive disorders. The data
gathered was quantitative in nature. A questionnaire was circulated among the respondent
population and the results of the study were analysed with the help of SPSS software after first
being converted into graphs and numerics. The Beck’s Depression Inventory II known also as

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BDI is the primary tool that was used for undertaking the assessment. For the second study, the
research study involved 73 older patients who are screened under the context of depression under
two major groups. The research study included the analysis of Pittsburgh sleep quality index as
well as the circadian rhythm regarding the ambulatory blood pressure , for comparing the non
depressed and the depressed case.
Both studies have attempted to see how depression can have an impact on sleeping
patterns. One study has aimed at understanding variations in sleep patterns based on intensity of
depression suffered while the other study has focused on how hypertension and depression can
both have a significant impact on the sleeping patterns of a person. The tool used in the first
study is the Beck’s Depression Inventory II (BDI). Chi Square Anova and Fisher Test were
main tools used in the second.
Conclusion
Towards understanding the analysis and the results of both the reaserch article, it can be
explained that, the analysis for the first study has been conducted using SPSS software. Sleep
patterns were studied in the members of the respondent population. Patients who have been
taking anti-depressants for more than one week and who are seen to suffer from major or
significant types of depressive disorder constituted the main subjects of the study. The results of
the study happen to reveal that most of the members of the respondent population suffer from
levels of depression that range from mild depression to moderate depression. Severe depression
was detected only in sixteen percent of the total respondent population. There were no age
differences detected among the three groups that were taken into consideration for the study and
the severity of the depression was also not seen to have any significant impact on the categories
of variables used in the study. The results of the study indicated that older patients with

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hypertension tends to gave higher rate of depression, over 24 h ambulatory ABP and DBP,
together with nocturnal DBP and SBP in compared to those having no depression. The
researcher of the study furthermore conducted unpaired T test and rank sum test method.
Both studies have made use of the SPSS analysis tool for analysing the numerical data. In the
second study, the impact of hypertension and depression on sleep patterns appears to be related
to age. Older members of the respondent population who are also suffering from hypertension
appeared to report higher levels of depression compared to younger members of the respondent
population and in whom the rate of hypertension is not so high. In the other study, age difference
does not have an impact sleep patterns it was discovered and the range of depression that the
respondent population is suffering from is also not major.
While analyzing the discussion section of both the reaserch, it can be stated that, the main
findings of the research are that depression has both quantitative as well as qualitative effect on
the matter of subjective sleep disturbance. The study was undertaken in a limited period of time
and with limited funds. With more time at hand as well as availability of funds, further research
to determine the neurobiological underpinnings of the research findings ought to be undertaken.
The findings of the second research of this article stated that, the main clinical features of
depression are the fatigue, reduced level of activity, sustained depression and apathy. The
research findings showcased that older patients with hypertension have increased level of
sleeping time, sleeping disorder, application of anti insomnia drug application as compared to the
non depressed patients.

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The findings of the study show that depression does have an impact on sleeping patterns in some
form or the other. In the second study, it has been seen that older patients who have
hypertension are more likely to suffer from severity of depression compared to those who do not
while this study has simply shown that depression has a quantitative and qualitative impact on
sleeping patterns, with no inference to age being detected in this respect.

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Reference
Gupta, R., Dahiya, S., & Bhatia, M. S. (2009). Effect of depression on sleep: Qualitative or
quantitative?. Indian journal of psychiatry, 51(2), 117.
Ma, L., & Li, Y. (2017). The effect of depression on sleep quality and the circadian rhythm of
ambulatory blood pressure in older patients with hypertension. Journal of Clinical
Neuroscience, 39, 49-52.