%0 Journal Article
%T Relationship between psychosomatic complaints and circadian rhythm irregularity assessed by salivary levels of melatonin and growth hormone
%A Mitsuo Nagane
%A Rie Suge
%A Shu-Ichi Watanabe
%J Journal of Circadian Rhythms
%D 2011
%I BioMed Central
%R 10.1186/1740-3391-9-9
%X Fifteen healthy students between 21 and 22 years of age were examined for physiological parameters of chronotypes based on melatonin and growth hormone secretion patterns, using a fluorescence enzyme immunoassay. Salivary samples were collected from subjects at home five times each day (20:00, 24:00, 04:00, 08:00, and 12:00 h). In addition, the subjects rated their psychosomatic symptoms twice (at 08:00 and 20:00 h).A group with irregular circadian rhythm of melatonin (ICR) showed more psychosomatic complaints than a group with the regular circadian rhythm (RCR), especially for anxiety.Psychosomatic symptoms, particularly anxiety, may be associated with irregularity in melatonin and growth hormone rhythms, which can be altered by basic lifestyle habits even in healthy students.Students suffering from psychosomatic complaints often have basic lifestyle problems such as short sleep duration [1] and nocturnal lifestyle [2]. An increasing number of human health problems are related to dysfunction or desynchrony of the circadian system [2-4]. Psychosomatic complaints refer to symptoms experienced by the individual with physical symptoms (e.g., head ache) and psychological symptoms (e.g., irritability). These psychosomatic symptoms, which are largely mediated by the autonomic nervous system, may be strongly influenced by an individual's lifestyle, and the current so-called "24-h society" may alter environmental conditions for students.In a previous study [5], we found that psychosomatic symptoms may be associated with chronotypic dysfunction, as inferred from rhythmicity in growth hormone (GH) levels. The results indicated a relationship between self-assessment scores and salivary levels of GH: subjects with high self-assessment scores showed significant variability in GH secretion over the day, whereas subjects with low self-assessment scores did not. In the present study, we focused on circadian dysfunction and measured both salivary melatonin and GH in each subject to
%K chronotypes (morningness-eveningness)
%K circadian rhythms
%K phase difference
%K healthy students
%K growth hormone
%K melatonin
%K psychosomatic complaints.
%U http://www.jcircadianrhythms.com/content/9/1/9