Sex hormones, orcadian rhythms, and depressive vulnerability

The objective of this review is to delineate the chronobiologic studies of mood disorders linked to the reproductive cycle in women. The experimental designs range from baseline studies of sleep and melatonin circadian rhythms to challenge designs utilizing light therapy and sleep deprivation as experimental perturbations. In summary, melatonin profiles, the best marker for circadian rhythmicity in humans, are abnormally blunted in women with premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD). Further, light therapy and sleep deprivation, chronobiologic interventions designed to correct underlying circadian rhythm disturbances, are effective in reducing particularly depressive symptoms in PMDD and may have benefit in other reproductive-related depressions in women such as postpartum or menopausal depressions. Depression 3:43–48 (1995). © 1995 Wiley-Liss, Inc.