Melanopsin photosensitivity and psychopathology

描述（由申请人提供）：情绪障碍通常具有季节性发作或恶化，尽管这种精神病理学的季节性触发因素背后的机制仍然未知。许多其他疾病也可能具有这种季节性恶化模式。我们假设，冬季环境光水平降低的异常反应可能解释了抑郁症发作的常规冬季时间，生物学的季节性变化，以及光疗法在季节性情感障碍，双相情感障碍，非季节性抑郁症，饮食障碍和衰老中认知能力下降等疾病中的益处。对环境光水平的异常反应可能由异常视网膜信号传导介导。本研究的目的是确定一个特定的途径，黑视素途径，起源于视网膜和投射到中央脑区，是否涉及烦躁的情绪，过度饮食，过度睡眠和冬季疲劳。将测试该神经通路的敏感性的量度，即照明后瞳孔反应（PIPR），以确定其与黑视素基因的遗传变异、情绪和行为的季节性变化以及精神病理学（即，烦躁情绪、嗜睡、食欲过盛和疲劳）。如果减少黑视素光敏性与情绪的季节性下降有关，PIPR可能构成这种类型的精神病理学的生物标志物，从而导致一种新的方法来根据起源或病因的途径对精神病理学进行分类。在未来，我们可能能够使用PIPR测试来识别那些易受特定光相关精神病理学恶化影响的人，并可能预测特定个体的最佳治疗方法，减少治疗的试错，并缩短康复时间。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Mood disorders often have a seasonal onset or exacerbation, although the mechanism behind such seasonal triggers for psychopathology is still unknown. Many other disorders may also have such seasonal patterns of exacerbation. We hypothesize that abnormal responses to diminished levels of environmental light in winter may account for the regular winter timing of episodes of depression, seasonal changes in biology, and the benefit of light therapy in disorders like seasonal affective disorder, bipolar disorder, nonseasonal depression, eating disorders, and cognitive decline in aging, for example. Abnormal responses to environmental light levels may be mediated by abnormal retinal signaling. The aim of the present study is to determine if a specific pathway, the melanopsin pathway, originating in the retina and projecting to central brain areas, is involved in dysphoric mood, over eating, over sleeping, and fatigue in winter. A measure of the sensitivity of this neural pathway, the post-illumination pupil response (PIPR), will be tested for association with genetic variations in the melanopsin gene, seasonal changes in mood and behavior, and psychopathology (i.e., dysphoric mood, hypersomnia, hyperphagia, and fatigue). If diminished melanopsin photosensitivity is associated with seasonal decrements in mood, the PIPR may constitute a biomarker for this type of psychopathology, leading to a new way to classify psychopathology based on the pathway of origin, or the etiology. In the future, we may be able to use the PIPR test to identify those vulnerable to specific light-related exacerbation of psychopathology, and potentially to predict the best treatment for a given individual, reducing the trial-and-error of treatment, and reducing the time to recovery.