Department of Psychiatry and Psychology, Maastricht University, VU University, the Netherlands; VU University Medical Center, Department of Psychiatry, the Netherlands; VU University Medical Center, Department of GGZ inGeest, the Netherlands.
Am J Geriatr Psychiatry. 2013 Nov;21(11):1144-53. doi: 10.1016/j.jagp.2013.01.052. Epub 2013 Feb 6.
According to the social zeitgeber theory, the lack of social support (SS) may decrease circadian rhythm regularity. However, the effect of SS on social rhythms in major depression has never been investigated. The objective of this study was to investigate the relation between SS and social rhythms in elderly patients with major depression.
Case-control study on the relation of SS with social rhythm regularity in 213 elderly patients with major depressive disorder (MDD) and 183 elderly healthy comparison subjects (HCs). Social rhythm regularity was studied using the social rhythm metric (SRM-5), in which a lower score represents less regularity. SS was assessed with the social support list (SSL).
Patients with MDD displayed lower SRM-5 scores than HCs (4.94 ± 0.94 versus 5.38 ± 1.12; p = 0.003), as well as lower SSL-interactions (60.0 ± 13.7 versus 70.5 ± 11.6; p <0.001), higher SSL-discrepancies (56.3 ± 15.5 versus 39.4 ± 7.2; p <0.001), and higher SSL-negative interactions (11.0 ± 4.5 versus 8.9 ± 1.9; p <0.001). In HCs, social support was negatively correlated with SRM-5 (SSL-interactions, r = -0.30; SSL-discrepancies, r = -0.23; SSL-negative interactions, r = -0.44). In MDD, SS was not correlated with SRM-5 (all r ≤ 0.03; all p >0.05).
Patients with MDD showed lower social rhythm regularity as well as lower measures of SS than HCs. In HCs, high SS was correlated with low social rhythm regularity, suggesting that increases in SS in combination with a healthy organization of circadian rhythms allow the social rhythms to become less rigid. Interestingly, in MDD, no correlation was found, suggesting that patients have a blunted response to social stimuli and may, therefore, benefit from treatment that increases the susceptibility to SS.
根据社会时间生物学理论，缺乏社会支持（SS）可能会降低昼夜节律的规律性。然而，SS 对重度抑郁症患者社会节律的影响从未被研究过。本研究旨在探讨老年重度抑郁症患者 SS 与社会节律的关系。
对 213 例老年重度抑郁症患者（MDD）和 183 例老年健康对照者（HCs）进行 SS 与社会节律规律性关系的病例对照研究。采用社会节律度量（SRM-5）来研究社会节律的规律性，分数越低表示规律性越差。SS 采用社会支持清单（SSL）评估。
MDD 患者的 SRM-5 评分低于 HCs（4.94±0.94 比 5.38±1.12；p=0.003），SSL 相互作用（60.0±13.7 比 70.5±11.6；p<0.001）、SSL 差异（56.3±15.5 比 39.4±7.2；p<0.001）和 SSL 负相互作用（11.0±4.5 比 8.9±1.9；p<0.001）较高。在 HCs 中，社会支持与 SRM-5 呈负相关（SSL 相互作用，r=-0.30；SSL 差异，r=-0.23；SSL 负相互作用，r=-0.44）。在 MDD 中，SS 与 SRM-5 不相关（所有 r≤0.03；所有 p>0.05）。
MDD 患者的社会节律规律性以及 SS 测量值均低于 HCs。在 HCs 中，高 SS 与低社会节律规律性相关，表明 SS 的增加与昼夜节律的健康组织相结合，可以使社会节律变得不那么僵化。有趣的是，在 MDD 中，没有发现相关性，这表明患者对社会刺激的反应迟钝，因此可能受益于增加对 SS 敏感性的治疗。
