Blunted Nocturnal Salivary Melatonin Secretion Profiles in Military-Related Posttraumatic Stress Disorder
Background: Sleep disturbances are a hallmark of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), yet few studies have evaluated the role of dysregulated endogenous melatonin secretion in this condition.Methods: This study compared the sleep quality and nocturnal salivary melatonin profiles of Canadian Armed F...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Frontiers Media S.A.
2019-12-01
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| Series: | Frontiers in Psychiatry |
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| Online Access: | https://www.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fpsyt.2019.00882/full |
| _version_ | 1811333945144377344 |
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| author | Michel A. Paul Ryan J. Love Rakesh Jetly J. Donald Richardson J. Donald Richardson J. Donald Richardson J. Donald Richardson Ruth A. Lanius Ruth A. Lanius James C. Miller Michael MacDonald Shawn G. Rhind |
| author_facet | Michel A. Paul Ryan J. Love Rakesh Jetly J. Donald Richardson J. Donald Richardson J. Donald Richardson J. Donald Richardson Ruth A. Lanius Ruth A. Lanius James C. Miller Michael MacDonald Shawn G. Rhind |
| author_sort | Michel A. Paul |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Background: Sleep disturbances are a hallmark of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), yet few studies have evaluated the role of dysregulated endogenous melatonin secretion in this condition.Methods: This study compared the sleep quality and nocturnal salivary melatonin profiles of Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) personnel diagnosed with PTSD, using the Clinician Administered PTSD Scale (CAPS score ≥50), with two healthy CAF control groups; comprising, a “light control” (LC) group with standardized evening light exposure and “normal control” (NC) group without light restriction. Participants were monitored for 1-week using wrist actigraphy to assess sleep quality, and 24-h salivary melatonin levels were measured (every 2h) by immunoassay on the penultimate day in a dim-light (< 5 lux) laboratory environment.Results: A repeated measures design showed that mean nocturnal melatonin concentrations for LC were higher than both NC (p = .03) and PTSD (p = .003) with no difference between PTSD and NC. Relative to PTSD, NC had significantly higher melatonin levels over a 4-h period (01 to 05 h), whereas the LC group had higher melatonin levels over an 8-h period (23 to 07 h). Actigraphic sleep quality parameters were not different between healthy controls and PTSD patients, likely due to the use of prescription sleep medications in the PTSD group.Conclusions: These results indicate that PTSD is associated with blunted nocturnal melatonin secretion, which is consistent with previous findings showing lower melatonin after exposure to trauma and suggestive of severe chronodisruption. Future studies targeting the melatonergic system for therapeutic intervention may be beneficial for treatment-resistant PTSD. |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-13T17:00:23Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-574b7f9cc2cc4f0cbf9e2d1b8a05449b |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1664-0640 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-13T17:00:23Z |
| publishDate | 2019-12-01 |
| publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Frontiers in Psychiatry |
| spelling | doaj.art-574b7f9cc2cc4f0cbf9e2d1b8a05449b2022-12-22T02:38:40ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Psychiatry1664-06402019-12-011010.3389/fpsyt.2019.00882499997Blunted Nocturnal Salivary Melatonin Secretion Profiles in Military-Related Posttraumatic Stress DisorderMichel A. Paul0Ryan J. Love1Rakesh Jetly2J. Donald Richardson3J. Donald Richardson4J. Donald Richardson5J. Donald Richardson6Ruth A. Lanius7Ruth A. Lanius8James C. Miller9Michael MacDonald10Shawn G. Rhind11Defence Research & Development Canada, Toronto Research Centre, Operational Health and Performance Section, Toronto, ON, CanadaDefence Research & Development Canada, Toronto Research Centre, Operational Health and Performance Section, Toronto, ON, CanadaDirectorate of Mental Health, Canadian Forces Health Services, Ottawa, ON, CanadaDepartment of Psychiatry, Western University, London, ON, CanadaDepartment of Psychiatry and Behavioural Neurosciences, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON, CanadaOperational Stress Injury Clinic, Parkwood Institute, London, ON, CanadaMacDonald Franklin Operational Stress Injury Research Centre, Lawson Research Institute, London, ON, CanadaDepartment of Psychiatry, Western University, London, ON, CanadaDepartment of Neuroscience, Western University, London, ON, CanadaDepartment of Life Sciences, Texas A&M University Corpus Christi, Corpus Christi, TX, United StatesDirectorate of Mental Health, Canadian Forces Health Services, Ottawa, ON, CanadaDefence Research & Development Canada, Toronto Research Centre, Operational Health and Performance Section, Toronto, ON, CanadaBackground: Sleep disturbances are a hallmark of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), yet few studies have evaluated the role of dysregulated endogenous melatonin secretion in this condition.Methods: This study compared the sleep quality and nocturnal salivary melatonin profiles of Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) personnel diagnosed with PTSD, using the Clinician Administered PTSD Scale (CAPS score ≥50), with two healthy CAF control groups; comprising, a “light control” (LC) group with standardized evening light exposure and “normal control” (NC) group without light restriction. Participants were monitored for 1-week using wrist actigraphy to assess sleep quality, and 24-h salivary melatonin levels were measured (every 2h) by immunoassay on the penultimate day in a dim-light (< 5 lux) laboratory environment.Results: A repeated measures design showed that mean nocturnal melatonin concentrations for LC were higher than both NC (p = .03) and PTSD (p = .003) with no difference between PTSD and NC. Relative to PTSD, NC had significantly higher melatonin levels over a 4-h period (01 to 05 h), whereas the LC group had higher melatonin levels over an 8-h period (23 to 07 h). Actigraphic sleep quality parameters were not different between healthy controls and PTSD patients, likely due to the use of prescription sleep medications in the PTSD group.Conclusions: These results indicate that PTSD is associated with blunted nocturnal melatonin secretion, which is consistent with previous findings showing lower melatonin after exposure to trauma and suggestive of severe chronodisruption. Future studies targeting the melatonergic system for therapeutic intervention may be beneficial for treatment-resistant PTSD.https://www.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fpsyt.2019.00882/fullsleep disturbancemelatoninpost-traumatic stress disorderdim light melatonin onsetcircadiansaliva |
| spellingShingle | Michel A. Paul Ryan J. Love Rakesh Jetly J. Donald Richardson J. Donald Richardson J. Donald Richardson J. Donald Richardson Ruth A. Lanius Ruth A. Lanius James C. Miller Michael MacDonald Shawn G. Rhind Blunted Nocturnal Salivary Melatonin Secretion Profiles in Military-Related Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Frontiers in Psychiatry sleep disturbance melatonin post-traumatic stress disorder dim light melatonin onset circadian saliva |
| title | Blunted Nocturnal Salivary Melatonin Secretion Profiles in Military-Related Posttraumatic Stress Disorder |
| title_full | Blunted Nocturnal Salivary Melatonin Secretion Profiles in Military-Related Posttraumatic Stress Disorder |
| title_fullStr | Blunted Nocturnal Salivary Melatonin Secretion Profiles in Military-Related Posttraumatic Stress Disorder |
| title_full_unstemmed | Blunted Nocturnal Salivary Melatonin Secretion Profiles in Military-Related Posttraumatic Stress Disorder |
| title_short | Blunted Nocturnal Salivary Melatonin Secretion Profiles in Military-Related Posttraumatic Stress Disorder |
| title_sort | blunted nocturnal salivary melatonin secretion profiles in military related posttraumatic stress disorder |
| topic | sleep disturbance melatonin post-traumatic stress disorder dim light melatonin onset circadian saliva |
| url | https://www.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fpsyt.2019.00882/full |
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