Sleep and circadian rhythm disruption in schizophrenia

作者：Katharina Wulff, Derk‐Jan Dijk, Benita Middleton, F. Foster, Eileen M. Joyce · 发表于：The British Journal of Psychiatry · 年份：2011 · DOI：10.1192/bjp.bp.111.096321 · 被引用次数：434 · 研究领域：Circadian rhythm and melatonin、Sleep and related disorders、Sleep and Wakefulness Research

BACKGROUND: Sleep disturbances comparable with insomnia occur in up to 80% of people with schizophrenia, but very little is known about the contribution of circadian coordination to these prevalent disruptions. AIMS: A systematic exploration of circadian time patterns in individuals with schizophrenia with recurrent sleep disruption. METHOD: We examined the relationship between sleep-wake activity, recorded actigraphically over 6 weeks, along with ambient light exposure and simultaneous circadian clock timing, by collecting weekly 48 h profiles of a urinary metabolite of melatonin in 20 out-patients with schizophrenia and 21 healthy control individuals matched for age, gender and being unemployed. RESULTS: Significant sleep/circadian disruption occurred in all the participants with schizophrenia. Half these individuals showed severe circadian misalignment ranging from phase-advance/delay to non-24 h periods in sleep-wake and melatonin cycles, and the other half showed patterns from excessive sleep to highly irregular and fragmented sleep epochs but with normally timed melatonin production. CONCLUSIONS: Severe circadian sleep/wake disruptions exist despite stability in mood, mental state and newer antipsychotic treatment. They cannot be explained by the individuals' level of everyday function.