Partonen T
Department of Psychiatry, University of Helsinki, Finland.
Med Hypotheses. 1998 Oct;51(4):297-8. doi: 10.1016/s0306-9877(98)90051-2.
Patients with winter seasonal affective disorder (SAD) often have abnormalities in the resetting of their circadian clock. The circadian cycle appears to be variable across days among these patients, deviating from the exact 24 hours, and peaking at unstable times. The findings suggest that the mean free-running circadian period is longer in winter SAD patients compared to healthy subjects. It is hypothesized that there would be a singular circadian pacemaker in the patients against the two pacemakers in healthy subjects.
患有冬季季节性情感障碍（SAD）的患者在昼夜节律时钟的重置方面常常存在异常。在这些患者中，昼夜周期似乎在不同日子有所变化，偏离了精确的24小时，并且在不稳定的时间达到峰值。研究结果表明，与健康受试者相比，冬季SAD患者的平均自由运行昼夜周期更长。据推测，患者体内存在一个单一的昼夜节律起搏器，而健康受试者有两个起搏器。
