Some people with depression sleep far more than average, wake up exhausted, habitually stay up late, and experience mood shifts with the seasons. A new study suggests that these symptoms may cluster in a distinct subtype of depression that's tied to the body's internal clock.
While research has long linked a scrambled circadian rhythm to a risk of mood disorders, neuroscientists are now proposing that these disruptions define a specific form of depression that they call "circadian depression." First conceptualized in 2021, the body-clock subtype may affect about 1 in 4 people with severe, recurrent or persistent depression, the researchers estimate.
In their new study, published Wednesday (Oct. 21) in The British Journal of Psychiatry, the team identified the subtype in about 2,600 people out of over 11,000 evaluated.
"Circadian depression is a biologically...
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