Study suggests disrupted body clock in youths seeking mental health care could be targeted for treating mood disorders

A study conducted in young people seeking mental health care found they had disrupted body clocks -- which showed up as signs similar to those of 'jet lag' -- suggesting that body clocks could be a new target for treating mood disorders, researchers said.

The study from The University of Sydney in Australia is the first to look at how three critical measures of one's biological clock are regulated among people experiencing mental disorders, the team said.

''We analysed participants' core body temperature, cortisol levels and melatonin levels, which we know play important roles in how our bodies manage the circadian rhythm -- our 24-hour cycles which regulate things like wakefulness and sleep,'' lead researcher Joanne Carpenter, a research fellow at the faculty of medicine and health, The University of Sydney, said.

Levels of the hormone 'melatonin' are linked with natural light, rising in the evening as darkness falls, while those of cortisol rise upon waking up in preparation for the day ahead. Core body temperature too is closely linked with circadian, or sleep-wake, cycles and fluctuates through the day.

The study, published in the Journal of Biological Rhythms, looked at two groups of young participants aged 16-35 -- the first having 306 with emerging mood disorders presented to mental health clinics in Sydney for treatment, and the second (48) with no history of mental illness.

Melatonin and cortisol levels were measured from saliva samples taken from the participants in the lead up to sleep and after waking up.

The team found that 23 per cent of mental health patients had at least two of these circadian rhythm measures out of sync with each other -- similar to the disruption experienced when crossing time zones or doing shift work, Carpenter said.

''However, what we are seeing here is circadian rhythms being out of sync with each other within a person's body, a kind of 'internal jet lag','' the lead researcher said.

''While we do see teenagers sleeping later because of normal developmental shifts in the body clock to later timing across adolescence, what we are seeing here is a more extreme kind of circadian disruption where the clocks are not just delayed but not lining up with each other,'' Carpenter said.

The authors wrote, ''These findings highlight the potential of use of 24-hour skin temperature rhythms as a non-invasive biomarker of circadian disturbances in youth with emerging mood disorders.'' The study supports the notion that disrupted sleep-wake cycles could enable the onset or illness course among youth with emerging major mood disorders, they said.

Co-author Jacob Crouse, academic lead on the youth mental health and technology team at The University of Sydney's Brain and Mind Centre, said these results could indicate new ways to approach mental health.

''Our findings suggest we might need to think differently about what kinds of treatments we're giving people with mood disorders, and whether we should be targeting body clocks as another option for managing these conditions,'' Crouse said.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)