Effects of Eszopiclone on Sleep and Memory in Schizophrenia

1369 Eszopiclone and Sleep Spindles in Schizophrenia—Wamsley et al INTRODUCTION Cognitive deficits are the strongest predictor of functional outcome in schizophrenia,1 and antipsychotic drugs (APDs) are relatively ineffective in treating them (e.g., Sergi2). Amelioration of cognitive deficits has thus become a priority of the schizophrenia research community and is the focus of largescale studies.3 A limitation of these efforts is that cognition is measured in cross-section. While this provides a valid snapshot of function, it misses critical aspects of learning and memory that happen offline, over time and with sleep. Following encoding, memories undergo “consolidation” processes that stabilize, enhance, integrate, and reorganize memory in the brain. A wealth of evidence from molecular, cellular, neural network, regional brain activation, and behavioral studies of birds,4 rodents,5 cats,6 and humans7 demonstrates that sleep plays a critical role in memory consolidation. This work suggests an evolutionarily conserved function for sleep in memory consolidation. In schizophrenia, there is evidence of both abnormal EFFECTS OF ESZOPICLONE ON SLEEP AND MEMORY IN SCHIZOPHRENIA