DEPRESSION AND DISTURBANCES IN CIRCADIAN RHYTHMS: PATHWAYS FOR NOVEL TREATMENT DEVELOPMENT

Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) is a heterogeneous disorder with disturbances in sleep as a prominent symptom. Patients with MDD often experiences difficulty falling asleep, staying asleep, waking up too early and/or excessive sleepiness (i.e., sleeping more than 10 hours/day). Furthermore, MDD is often comorbid with other disorders such as obesity and obstructive sleep apnea which further contribute to sleep and circadian rhythm disturbances. Clinical assessments of sleep in patients with MDD is often limited. Recent advances in wearable technologies have now allowed objective characterization of sleep in naturalistic home-based settings without the need for lab-based sleep studies. This presentation will focus on the overlap between depression and circadian disturbances, and the utility of wearable technologies in monitoring these circadian disturbances. Additionally, novel insights will be presented linking these circadian disturbances to dysfunctions in orexin signaling which promises to be a novel treatment approach for improving depression.

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