Chronobiology Revisited in Psychiatric Disorders: From a Translational Perspective

Several lines of evidence support a relationship between circadian disruption in the onset, course, and maintenance of mental disorders. Despite the study of circadian phenotypes promising a decent understanding of the pathophysiologic or etiologic mechanisms of psychiatric entities, several questions still need to be addressed. In this review, we aimed to synthesize the literature investigating chronobiologic theories and their associations with psychiatric entities. We first introduced molecular elements and mechanisms of the circadian system to promote a better understanding of the chronobiologic implications of mental disorders. Then, we comprehensively and systematically reviewed circadian system studies in mood disorders, schizophrenia, and anxiety disorders. Current research has demonstrated that circadian pathologies, including genetic and neurohumoral alterations, represent the neural substrates of the pathophysiology of many psychiatric disorders. However, much more work is needed to identify the causal relationship between circadian physiology abnormalities and mental disorders, and to develop sound pharmacologic interventions.