CHANGES OF SPATIAL MEMORY AND TNF-Α IN THE PATIENTS WITH CHRONIC INSOMNIA

YAN HUANG

Anqing medical college, Anqing, Anhui, China 246052

Objective: We intended to explore differences of spatial memory and TNF-α level of patients with chronic insomnia (CI) and patients with depression comorbidity of insomnia (DCI), and discover the correlation between spatial memory and the TNF-α level.

Methods: According to diagnostic criteria in the DSM-V, 30 CI patients and 30 DCI patients were selected, and 30 healthy subjects were employed. Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI), 17-item Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HMAD-17), Montreal Cognitive Assessment Scale (MoCA), “nine-box maze”, and Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) methods were used in the experiments.

Results: The scores of PSQI and HMAD-17 were higher in CI group and DCI group relative to the control group (Ps<0.001), and the average HAMD-17 score was lower in CI group relative to the DCI group (P<0.001). The CI group had more errors of spatial working memory and object recognition memory than the control group (Ps<0.05). Meanwhile, the DCI group had more errors of spa- tial working memory, object working memory, spatial reference memory, object reference memory and object recognition memory than the control group (Ps<0.05). Spearman’s correlation analysis showed that the errors of spatial working memory, object working memory, spatial reference memory, object reference memory and object recognition memory were positively correlated with the TNF-α level (Ps<0.005).

Conclusion: In the CI patients, spatial working memory and object recognition memory are impaired. Insomnia may be an inflammatory disease, and TNF-α is one of the important biological indicators of insomnia. The changes of spatial memory of CI patients might be associated with the increased TNF-α level.