TEMPORAL COORDINATION OF REST-ACTIVITY CYCLE, BODY-TEMPERATURE, URINARY FREE CORTISOL, AND MOOD IN A PATIENT WITH 48-HOUR UNIPOLAR-DEPRESSIVE CYCLES IN CLINICAL AND TIME-CUE-FREE ENVIRONMENTS

Abstract

During medication-free observation a 66 yr old male patient showed an almost strict alternation of days with depressed mood and days with normal mood. The experiment consisted of 2 parts; the 1st was 4 wk observation in the psychiatric ward, while the 2nd was 2 wk observation in an experimental unit where the patient was deprived of all known information on local time. In the psychiatric ward the observed circadian rhythms, i.e., the rest-activity cycle, the body tempeature, the urinary free cortisol and the mood rhythm, were all synchronized with geophysical day. Under isolation from time cues the average rest-activity cycle duration was reduced to about 19.5 h, whereas the body temperature and the urinary free cortisol continued to show rhythms with near 24 h periods. The main finding of the study is the persistence of a near 48 h periodicity in the mood fluctuation under isolation from time cues. Besides this, in the time course of body temperature and urinary free cortisol, evoked components correlating with mood cycles were found.