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Disruption to the body's internal clock may put people at increased risk of mood disorders, scientists say.<\/p>\nDisruption to the body's internal clock may put people at increased risk of mood disorders, scientists say.<\/p>\n
A clock ticks in nearly every cell of the body. And they change how the tissues work in a daily rhythm.<\/p>\n
A Lancet Psychiatry study of 91,000 people found a disrupted body clock was linked with depression, bipolar disorder and other problems.<\/p>\n
The Glasgow researchers said it was a warning to societies becoming less in tune with these natural rhythms.<\/p>\n
People in the study wore activity monitors for a week to see how disrupted their clocks were.<\/p>\n
Those who were highly active at night or inactive during the day were classed as being disrupted.<\/p>\n
And they were between 6% and 10% more likely to have been diagnosed with a mood disorder than people who had a more typical – active in the day, inactive at night – pattern.<\/p>\n
Prof Daniel Smith, a psychiatrist and one of the University of Glasgow researchers, told the BBC: “These are not huge differences.<\/p>\n
“But what is striking is it is pretty robust across lots of interesting outcomes.”<\/p>\n
The study found higher rates of major depression, bipolar disorder, more loneliness, lower happiness, worse reaction times and more mood instability in people with body-clock disruption.<\/p>\n
However, the study cannot tell if the disruption is causing the mental illness or is just a symptom of it.<\/p>\n
That will take further work.<\/p>\n
Circadian rhythm<\/p>\n
The body clock certainly exerts a powerful effect throughout the body.<\/p>\n
Mood, hormone levels, body temperature and metabolism all fluctuate in a daily rhythm.<\/p>\n
Even the risk of a heart attack soars every morning as the body gets the engine running to start a new day.<\/p>\n
Prof Smith said: “The study tells us the body clock is really important for mood disorders and should be given greater priority in research and in way we organise societies.<\/p>\n
“It wouldn't be too controversial to say we need to reorganise the way we learn and work to be in tune with our natural rhythms.”<\/p>\n
The study used data from the UK's Biobank research project. However, many of the participants were quite old.<\/p>\n
Dr Aiden Doherty, from the University of Oxford, said: “The study population is not ideal to examine the causes of mental health, given that 75% of disorders start before the age of 24 years.”<\/p>\n
But he added the study showed the way for a similar research in “adolescents and younger adults to help transform our understanding of the causes and consequences, prevention, and treatment of mental health disorders”.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Disruption to the body’s internal clock may put people at increased risk of mood disorders, scientists say. A clock ticks in nearly every cell of the body. And they change how the tissues work in a daily rhythm. A Lancet Psychiatry study of 91,000 people found a disrupted body clock was linked with depression, bipolar […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":44153,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[19],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\t\n\t\n\n\n\t\n