Relationship between the characteristics of diurnal rhythm and biology in paitents with depressive disorders

Objective:To study the relationship between characteristics of diurnal rhythm and the plasma level of cytokine and cortisol in patients with depressive disorders. Method:55 depressed patients met diagnostic criteria and 38 healthy normal controls were studied,the levels of cortisol,IL-6 and IL-2 at 7am and 7pm were measured by radioimmunoassay and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays,each indexes morning-evening levels and differences were compared among the depressed group with diurnal variation(mood worsening in the morning),the depressed group without diurnal variation and healthy normal controls. Results:There were significantly increased of the cortisol level and the morning-evening difference in the depressed group with and without diurnal variation compared with the healthy normal controls.IL-6 evening level of the depressed group with diurnal variation was significantly increased compared with healthy controls,IL-6 morning-evening difference of two groups vary obviously compared with normal controls.IL-2 evening level of two groups was obviously lower than that of normal controls. Conclusion:No matter there are clinical symptoms of the characteristics of diurnal rhythm variation or not,all depressed patients have been shown the abnormal variations,which are the higher cortisol levels in the morning than those in the evening and the higher IL-6 levels in the evening than those in the morning.