Talk:Deep sleep therapy/Archive 1

Mechanism of action
I have removed this section as a blog is not a reliable source and more importantly is talking about naturally occurring slow-wave sleep not DST. Neither is another wikipedia article a reliable source.Staug73 (talk) 09:43, 1 February 2012 (UTC) "While deep sleep therapy has been used for such a long time, little scientific research into what could have caused symptoms relief in patients has been performed. Also the type of the drugs used, barbiturates as in examples above, can have a certain damaging effect, decreasing the value of sleep therapy. It is likely that any beneficial effect from deep sleep therapy may come from the combined effect of the drugs used, brain chemistry and processes which occur only in deep sleep, such as the release of human growth hormone (interrupting deep sleep abruptly stops release), and other factors such as recently discovered release of 'therapeutic' stem cells to the blood stream during deep sleep from bone marrow. Current understanding of sleep processes is still poor and incomplete, but beneficial results of intentional or accidental prolonged deep sleep, together with drug action are being occasionally reported, see bottom reference."

Current Situation
I have edited the line about current practice to frame it in the same way at the cited hansard report, rather than in the context of past issues. I'm not sure this information even belongs in the article, and would approve the removal of the content if others think it should be removed. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Millionmice (talk • contribs) 05:00, 3 September 2013 (UTC)


 * Judging from what both the minister and the newspaper article said, the patients were deliberately kept unconscious for days, which puts it within the definition of deep sleep treatment even though it is being referred to as prolonged sedation. Staug73 (talk) 16:28, 9 September 2013 (UTC)

Definition
Is this anything more than heavy sedation? 'Sleep' seems like a misnomer, which isn't clear from the introduction. Different definitions seem to be used through out the article. I'm going to chuck out anything not specifically referenced as deep sleep, particularly material relating to what is clearly sedation. As this is a very large quantity of the article I though it best to seek feedback before doing it. Millionmice (talk) 11:14, 2 April 2014 (UTC)


 * The terms used to refer to treatments (or illnesses) sometimes change over time, or are different in different countries. I get the impression that continuous narcosis is the earlier term - and perhaps a more British one? But I haven't been able to pinpoint the first use of the term deep sleep treatment - why don't you have a look, then you could clarify the question in the article. I think everything in the article comes under the definition at the beginning of the article - which is the standard definition used, for example, in the Australian and NZ College of Psychiatrists' position paper. I think the paper also points out that deep sleep treatment is a misnomer. Why don't you add a sentence about that, with reference? RD Gillepsie pointed out that the term continuous narcosis is also a misnomer, because patients are woken at intervals. I think everything in the article is relevant to the subject, whatever name it goes by. Staug73 (talk) 09:06, 3 April 2014 (UTC)


 * Thanks for the reply. Having looked for a specific definition of DST, I could only find ad hoc definitions.  Sleep is not the same as unconsciousness or sedation.  Although I accept the definition should be given some flexibility as the article is primarily one of historical interest.  Intend doing a tidy up, including definitions as you suggest.  Millionmice (talk) 06:47, 24 July 2014 (UTC)