A longitudinal study of diurnal mood variation in depression; characteristics and significance

The course of 39 depressed in-patients' daily mood was recorded by means of frequent self-ratings during their entire stay (in total 3718 days). The frequency of diurnal variations largely varies between subjects without clear dichotomy in 'diurnal' and 'non-diurnal' subjects and the occurrence of diurnal variations is rather irregular. Mood variability measures rather than average daily mood improvement correlate with the response to sleep deprivation. These observations do not support theories of chronobiological rhythm disturbances in depression. It is argued that depressed subjects largely vary in susceptibility to stimuli. Signals generated by the biological clock or by processes related to the sleep-wake cycle are considered examples of such stimuli.