title: Pretreatment circadian period in free-running blind people may predict the phase angle of entrainment to melatonin.
abstract: To date, we have entrained (synchronized) eight totally blind people with free-running circadian rhythms to a nightly dose of 10 mg of melatonin. Each person entrained at a different phase angle of entrainment (PAE), which is the interval in hours between the time of the melatonin dose and the time of the endogenous melatonin onset. When the PAE was plotted against the pretreatment free-running (i.e. slightly different than 24.0 h) circadian period (tau), the fitted regression line revealed a significant correlation, which is consistent with previous findings on light entrainment of rest-activity rhythms in free-running rodents [Pittendrigh and Daan, J. Comp. Physiol., 106 (1976) 291-331].
authors.affiliation: Sleep and Mood Disorders Laboratory, Department of Psychiatry, School of Medicine, Oregon Health Sciences University, Portland, OR 97201-3098, USA. lewy@ohsu.edu
authors.forename: A J
authors.initials: AJ
authors.lastname: Lewy
authors.forename: B P
authors.initials: BP
authors.lastname: Hasler
authors.forename: J S
authors.initials: JS
authors.lastname: Emens
authors.forename: R L
authors.initials: RL
authors.lastname: Sack
mesh_terms: D019540:Area Under Curve; D001683:Biological Clocks / Q000187:drug effects; D001766:Blindness / Q000150:complications*; D021081:Chronobiology Disorders / Q000150:complications* / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000503:physiopathology; D002940:Circadian Rhythm / Q000187:drug effects*; D004334:Drug Administration Schedule; D006801:Humans; D016014:Linear Models; D008550:Melatonin / Q000008:administration & dosage / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D013997:Time Factors; D016896:Treatment Outcome
chemical_list: D008550:Melatonin