Beck-Friis J, von Rosen D, Kjellman B F, Ljunggren J G, Wetterberg L
Psychoneuroendocrinology. 1984;9(3):261-77. doi: 10.1016/0306-4530(84)90005-2.
Serum melatonin levels over a 24 hr period were studied in 30 acutely ill patients with major depressive episode, 24 patients with a history of unipolar or bipolar major affective disorder in remission and 33 healthy subjects. A significant negative correlation (-0.45) between body height and maximum nocturnal serum melatonin level was found. Maximum serum melatonin levels during the night were lower in both patient groups than in the healthy controls. No difference was found between maximum nocturnal serum melatonin levels in 26 patients investigated when ill and again in remission. We thus propose low nocturnal melatonin to be a trait-dependent marker for major depressive disorder. A difference in the morning but not night melatonin levels was found between samples taken during the dark, winter season versus samples taken during the bright, spring-summer season. Melatonin levels were not lower in females than in males, when melatonin levels were adjusted for body height. Similar results were found when the nocturnal areas under the curve for melatonin were analyzed.
对30例患有重度抑郁发作的急性病患者、24例有单相或双相重度情感障碍缓解病史的患者以及33名健康受试者，研究了其24小时内的血清褪黑素水平。发现身高与夜间血清褪黑素最高水平之间存在显著负相关（-0.45）。两个患者组夜间的血清褪黑素最高水平均低于健康对照组。在26例患者患病时及病情缓解时进行调查，发现夜间血清褪黑素最高水平没有差异。因此，我们认为夜间褪黑素水平低是重度抑郁症的一种特质依赖性标志物。在黑暗的冬季采集的样本与明亮的春夏季采集的样本之间，发现早晨而非夜间的褪黑素水平存在差异。在根据身高对褪黑素水平进行调整后，女性的褪黑素水平并不低于男性。在分析褪黑素曲线下的夜间面积时也发现了类似结果。
