Circadian Disruption in Psychiatric Disorders.

Evidence suggests that abnormalities in circadian rhythms might prove causally or pathophysiologically significant in psychiatric illness. The circadian regulation of hormonal and behavioral timekeeping processes is often altered in patients with major depression, bipolar disorder, and schizophrenia, and a susceptibility to rhythm instability may contribute to the functional impairment. For some patients, interventions that stabilize or resynchronize circadian rhythms prove therapeutically effective. Circadian disruption in the clinical profiles of most psychiatric illnesses and the treatment efficacy of chronobiological interventions suggest that attention to circadian phenotypes in a range of psychiatric disorders may help to uncover shared pathophysiologic mechanisms.