Department of General Psychology, University of Padua, Padua, Italy.
Padova Neuroscience Center (PNC), University of Padua, Padua, Italy.
Transl Psychiatry. 2024 May 28;14(1):219. doi: 10.1038/s41398-024-02925-9.
Depression is characterized by reduced physical activity and sleep-wake cycle disturbances, often considered important features of the disease. While a few studies have suggested that self-reported reduced physical activity and sleep-wake cycle disturbances might both be linked to depression vulnerability, actigraphy-based measures in vulnerable samples remain largely unexplored. This study relied on actigraphy-based parameters to test whether these disturbances characterize depression vulnerability. Seven-day actigraphy data were collected from 20 (13 female) university students with a high vulnerability to depression, which was determined by the presence of a family history of the condition but no current symptoms, and 32 (21 female) controls with neither a family history of depression nor current depressive symptoms. Daily physical activity, namely gross motor activity, was quantified as average daily acceleration and time spent engaging in moderate-vigorous physical activity (MVPA). The sleep-wake cycle and circadian rhythms were assessed as total sleep duration per night (in hours), sleep within sleep period time (in hours), sleep efficiency (%), and relative amplitude (i.e., the difference between the activity during the day and the night, which reflects circadian rhythms amplitude). Results showed that individuals with a familial risk for depression exhibited reduced daily acceleration and time spent in MVPA relative to the control group, particularly on the weekend during their free time away from scheduled activities. On the other hand, the two groups were comparable in terms of sleep estimates. Taken together, reduced physical activity, but not sleep-wake disturbances, seem to be associated with vulnerability to depression and might be a viable target for identification and prevention efforts.
抑郁的特征是身体活动减少和睡眠-觉醒周期紊乱，这些通常被认为是该疾病的重要特征。虽然有一些研究表明，自我报告的身体活动减少和睡眠-觉醒周期紊乱可能都与抑郁易感性有关，但在易感样本中基于活动记录仪的测量仍在很大程度上未被探索。本研究依赖于基于活动记录仪的参数来测试这些紊乱是否是抑郁易感性的特征。从 20 名（13 名女性）对抑郁高度易感的大学生（通过存在该疾病的家族史但目前没有症状来确定）和 32 名（21 名女性）无抑郁家族史也无当前抑郁症状的对照组中收集了为期 7 天的活动记录仪数据。每日身体活动，即总运动活动，被量化为平均每日加速度和从事中-高强度体力活动（MVPA）的时间。睡眠-觉醒周期和昼夜节律通过每晚的总睡眠时间（以小时为单位）、睡眠期内的睡眠时间（以小时为单位）、睡眠效率（%）和相对幅度（即白天和夜晚之间的活动差异，反映昼夜节律幅度）来评估。结果表明，与对照组相比，有抑郁家族史的个体的日常加速度和从事 MVPA 的时间减少，尤其是在周末他们从日程安排的活动中自由时间。另一方面，两组在睡眠估计方面没有差异。总的来说，身体活动减少，而不是睡眠-觉醒紊乱，似乎与抑郁易感性有关，可能是识别和预防努力的可行目标。
