Erren Thomas C, Koch Melissa S, Groß J Valerie, Kämmerer-Cruchon Susanne, Fuchs Alexander, Pinger Andreas, Reiter Russel J
Institute and Policlinic for Occupational Medicine, University of Cologne, Lindenthal, Germany.
Neuro Endocrinol Lett. 2012;33(4):357-60.
Chronomedicine may be conceptualized as dealing with the prevention, causation, diagnosis, and treatment of diseases in humans with a particular focus on the role "time" [Greek: chrónos] plays in our physiology, endocrinology, metabolism and behavior at many organizational levels. While it has been used as a term and somewhat pursued as a discipline for decades, it appears that chronomedicine has captured a broader interest as a promising specialty only more recently. This commentary addresses roots of chronomedicine in the 1900s and perspectives for chronomedicine in the 21st century. Classical terms of chronobiology, e.g., Zeitgeber, melatonin and circadian, may be traced back to Aschoff, Lerner, and Halberg, respectively, but who actually coined the term "chronomedicine" and used it first in a publication remains unclear. Importantly, it could be(come) rather straightforward to transfer abundant insights gained from chronobiology to strategies in chronomedicine as animal models have been increasingly developed to understand human health and disease. Perspectively, chronomedicine should comprise "clinical chronomedicine" (individual-based) and "preventive chronomedicine" (population-based). Overall, due to the "maturing" of chronomedicine as a field, the near future might bring a section dedicated to chronomedicine in existing journals, or even a "Journal of Chronomedicine" as vectors of ideas and research.
时间医学可以被概念化为研究人类疾病的预防、病因、诊断和治疗，特别关注“时间”（希腊语：chronos）在我们生理、内分泌、新陈代谢和行为的多个组织层面所起的作用。虽然作为一个术语并在一定程度上作为一门学科被使用了几十年，但时间医学似乎直到最近才作为一个有前景的专业引起了更广泛的关注。这篇评论探讨了20世纪时间医学的根源以及21世纪时间医学的前景。生物钟学的经典术语，如授时因子、褪黑素和昼夜节律，可能分别追溯到阿绍夫、勒纳和哈尔伯格，但究竟是谁创造了“时间医学”这个术语并首次在出版物中使用尚不清楚。重要的是，随着越来越多的动物模型被开发用于理解人类健康和疾病，将从生物钟学获得的丰富见解转化为时间医学的策略可能会变得相当直接。从长远来看，时间医学应包括“临床时间医学”（基于个体）和“预防时间医学”（基于人群）。总体而言，由于时间医学作为一个领域的“成熟”，在不久的将来，现有期刊可能会有专门讨论时间医学的板块，甚至可能会出现一本“时间医学杂志”，作为思想和研究的载体。
