PERCEIVED MOOD AND SKIN BODY-TEMPERATURE RHYTHM IN DEPRESSION

Eighteen inpatients affected by recurrent major depression were monito red in their clinical and biological features during the acute episode of illness. Diurnal mood variations rated with Visual Analogue Scale (VAS) and diurnal variations of skin body temperature were measured ev ery 2 h consecutively for 2 days. Circadian rhythmicity of the two par ameters was evaluated by cosinor analysis separately for each patient. The inspection of the individual cosine fitting shows that patients w ith a high circadian rhythmicity in perceived severity of symptomatolo gy tend to show low circadian rhythmicity in skin body temperature, wh ereas patients with a low VAS oscillation tend to display a higher diu rnal variation in skin body temperature. A chi-square test confirmed a statistical significance of the discordance between the two rhythms. We discuss our findings hypothesizing a different degree of entrainmen t of the disease process to the main circadian pacemaker.