Dream features in psychiatric patients on multiple psychoactive drugs

Kalra, R., Natu, M. V., Deswal, R. S., & Agarwal, A. K. (2000). Dream features in psychiatric patients on multiple psychoactive drugs. Human Psychopharmacology: Clinical & Experimental, 15(7), 525-528. Retrieved October 11, 2011, from EBSCOhost.

This study was conducted in order to investigate how psychoactive drugs and a psychiatric disease influence dreams.  Past studies indicated that dreaming is a result of complex actions of CNS neurons during sleep. Also they indicated that the number of dreams and the quality of dreams can be changed through various drugs that act on the central nervous system, the complex actions of psychoactive drugs on sleeping patterns, and an individual’s emotional state.One hundred participants were involved in this study and divided into two groups; 50 psychiatric patients and 50 normal individuals who volunteered. Both groups had to complete a questionnaire in order to compare their dream patterns. Even before the beginning of their illness, the dream features of the patients were different from the normal participants. The dreams of the normal patients seemed to correspond to what was taking place in their everyday lives.  The patients  frequently had dreams that were alarming, repetitive, and contain visions of snakes. After the illness began, 10% of patients reported that their dreams stopped while 69% of patients, while on therapy, reported that they did not have any dreams. Within this study, 78% of the participants reported that their dreams had been suppressed after therapy. The researchers feel that this could mean that dream phenomena are suppressed or that there is an effect on dream recall.