https://www.dpa-international.com/trends-and-features/urn:newsml:dpa.com:20090101:261026-99-71741/
About one in four depression cases could be down to disruptions to the sleep-wake cycle in what Australia-based scientists believe should be labelled a “circadian” variant of the condition.
After assessing data for around 10,000 patients, the researchers said that around 25% exhibited a body clock-based “seasonal pattern of illness,” with many tending to stay up late and feel “very tired” the following day despite often sleeping longer than usual.
“People with circadian depression were more likely to experience their depression emerging earlier in life and had more severe symptoms,” the University of Sydney said, listing “mania and higher levels of suicidal thoughts” among the more troubling effects.
Those affected were more likely to develop cardiovascular ailments and to show signs of neurological conditions such as ADHD, according to the team, explaining that the findings mean new treatments should be considered for patients of this newly-categorised depression “subtype.”
“Depression is not a uniform illness and understanding the characteristics of different subtypes mean that we can give people earlier access to treatments that will be most effective for them,” said Emiliana Tonini of the University of Sydney’s Brain and Mind Centre, whose team’s paper was published by the British Journal of Psychiatry.
Depression is “a heterogeneous condition with highly variable presentations and patterns of treatment response,” the researchers said in the paper.
The findings suggest that the serotonin-based medications often prescribed to depression patients might not be suitable for those with the newly-categorized circadian variant.
“Because circadian depression is linked to people’s internal body clock, treatments targeting the circadian rhythm, such as light therapy and melatonin, may be much more relevant,”said Jacob Crouse, a Brain and Mind Centre researcher.
