Top Ten Brain Posts 2011: 1-3

This post is the final in a series of three posts highlighting the most popular Brain Posts of 2011.  The posts ranked 7-10 can be found here.  The posts ranked 4-6 can be accessed here.

The top post for 2011 was a review of the iPhone/iPad app called Sleep Cycle.

1. Sleep Cycle: Review of iPhone Alarm App

Sleep Cycle is designed to monitor sleep movements and provide a wake up alarm during a period of light sleep.  This is designed to prevent being awakened from a deep sleep.

I used the app over several nights and was impressed by the graph function that provides an overview of sleep stages throughout the night.  The original post can be found here.

This post ranked number one by a wide margin with over 20,000 page views.  I guess it reflects the wide interest in apps for mobile devices and the general interest in sleep.

2.  Low-dose Doxepin for Insomnia Treatment

Doxepin is a tricyclic antidepressant drug that has been available for many years.  In the second most
popular post I reviewed research related to it's use for insomnia.

Doxepin is typically used at doses of 150 to 300 mg daily to treat depression.  It's use has been limited due to the significant sedative effect of the compound and the carry-over drowsiness that many users experience.

Clinical trials have documented the utility of much lower doses of doxepin for insomnia.  At doses in the 5 to 10 mg range, many individuals with insomnia find improved sleep without residual drowsiness.  The original post can be found here and a related post examining the use of doxepin in the elderly with insomnia here.

3.  Vilazodone: A Novel Antidepressant

A new antidepressant drug was approved for treatment in 2011.  Vilazodone represents a novel approach for antidepressants by adding a 5HT1A agonist effect to a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor.

In a review of two studies involving over 800 subjects, approximately 40 to 44% of subjects demonstrated a clinical response to vilazodone.  The most common side effects of the drug appear to be diarrhea, nausea and headache.

The original post on this topic can be found here.

Thanks to all the Brain Post readers who followed the blog in 2011.  I plan to continue the blog in 2012 as well as putting together several electronic books annotating archive posts that might be of interest to specific reader categories.

Photo of sea gull flying over Arkansas River near Tulsa, Oklahoma from the author's files.