Abstract

Dimitris G Dikeos is an Associate Professor of Psychiatry at the 1st Department of Psychiatry of Athens University Medical School, Athens, Greece and a Visiting Research Associate at the Division of Psychological Medicine, Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London, London, UK. His research activities have focused on psychiatric genetics, sleep research, psychopharmacology and clinical studies in psychiatry. He has participated in various Multicentre Research Programmes in Europe and the USA such as: European Science Foundation, European Collaborative Studies of Affective Disorders, Johns Hopkins Genetic Epidemiology Schizophrenia Program, Meta-analysis of Sleep Laboratory Studies on Tolerance and Rebound Insomnia with Rapidly Eliminated Hypnotics, Maudsley Family Study, European Collaborative study by the Group for the Study of Resistant Depression, International Multicentre Study “FACTOR”, etc. He is or has been member of various scientific and professional Societies and Boards, as well as member of the Executive Committees of the Hellenic Sleep Research Society (President), the International Neuropsychiatric Association (President-elect), the Athens Medical Society, the Hellenic Society for the Advancement of Psychiatry and Related Sciences. He has also served as member of the Editorial Board of the “Archives of Hellenic Medicine” and is a reviewer in many international Journals. Dr Dikeos is the author or co-author of more than 100 full publications, out of which 50 articles in SCI Journals, among which: American Journal of Medical Genetics, British Journal of Psychiatry, Current Opinion in Psychiatry, International Clinical Psychopharmacology, Journal of Psychosomatic Research, Molecular Psychiatry, Nature Genetics, Psychiatric Genetics, and Science.

Sleep is a condition characterised by behavioural inactivity, but on the neurophysiological level there are significant changes which allow the distinction of discrete sleep stages. These stages have specific electrophysiological (especially EEG) characteristics and are accompanied by particular endocrine changes. Various characteristics related to normal sleep or to sleep-related symptoms and electrophysiological characteristics are being studied to provide better insight not only to sleep disorders, but also to normal brain function and to the neurophysiology of various other pathological conditions. Major depression is a leading example of a condition associated with the shortening of REM latency and disturbance of slow-wave-sleep patterns. Cortico-thalamo-cortical systems pathology associated with dementias is reflected to specific changes in the structure and occurrence of certain electroencephalographic features. Such a feature are sleep spindles, a characteristic recurring waveform which is a defining parameter of stage 2 sleep. Work will be presented on the development of sleep spindle identification algorithms and on ongoing research regarding sleep spindle characteristics in various dementing conditions.