TTttcsc social factors also have the potential to disrupt circadian rhythms.22 Some of the particular psychosocial precipitants of depressive disorder, such as life events, Cytoskeletal Signaling inhibitor chronic stresses, or lack of appropriate social support systems, may act as precipitants by disrupting circadian rhythms. Clocks everywhere The concept of a master pacemaker driving all circadian rhythms has been very useful. It needs to be supplemented

by the concept of peripheral clocks distributed in every organ and perhaps Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical in every cell.23 Each organ has its own relevant and specifically timed circadian rhythms―of heart rate, liver metabolism, and kidney transport, and Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical also of gene expression. Under normal conditions, all rhythms are synchronized by the SCN.23 The SCN signal is translated mainly by the PVN into

a hormonal and autonomic signal to peripheral organs. Visceral, sensory, and hormonal information feeds back on the hypothalamus, providing fine-tuning to synchronize time-of-day input from the external light-dark cycle with metabolic information from the inside. The phase of each rhythm can be adjusted by differential responses of a given tissue’s circadian clock to a signal from the SCN or from the environment. Such a system can adjust well to small, gradual changes in the input signal (such as Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical seasonal changes in daylength), but may become temporarily and severely disorganized if the change in phase of this signal is abrupt and large (as is most obvious for rapid transmeridian travel and shift work). How could this system go wrong in affective disorders? Consider the vegetative symptoms that are an integral Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical part of the depressive syndrome, and often appear

as forerunners. If sleep is no longer in correct alignment with the inner or outer clock, if food intake decreases, or if behavior turns inward Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical so that motor activity declines and the amount of outdoor light exposure is reduced (as well as social contact), is it not conceivable that these behaviors each act on different clocks, shifting their timing with respect to each other and the day-night cycle to different degrees? This found temporal cacophony could initiate an internal stress reaction. Given the concept of a final common neuroendocrine pathway of depression via hyperactivity of the HPA axis, this may be an important mediating system from physiology to psyche. Clock genes, sleep genes Individual preference in timing of the sleep-wake cycle (chronotype, ie, whether “larks” or “owls”)24 is determined by clock genes, of which 10 have been cloned so far.25 Individual sleep and wake duration (long sleepers versus short sleepers) is also probably programmed in certain sleep genes26).