Depression and anxiety symptoms correlate with diurnal preference, sleep habits, and Per3 VNTR polymorphism (rs57875989) in a non-clinical sample.

Background: Evidences suggest that alterations in circadian rhythms trigger the development of mental disorders. Eveningness, sleep behavior, and circadian genes polymorphisms have been associated with depression and anxiety symptomatology. However, the mechanism underlying these interactions is not well understood. We investigated the contribution of diurnal preference, sleep habits, and PER3 VNTR polymorphism (rs57875989) to depression and anxiety symptoms in a Northeast sample from the Brazilian population.

Methods: Eight hundred and four young adults completed the Morningness-Eveningness (MEQ), Munich Chronotype (MCTQ), Center for Epidemiologic Studies - Depression (CES-D), and Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI) questionnaires. All participants were genotyped and linear regression was performed to test the interactions between the genetic /behavioral variants and depression/ anxiety symptoms.

Results: Eveningness and sleep behaviors (bedtime, wake-up time, sleep duration, and midpoint of sleep) were correlated with depression symptomatology, specifically in somatic factors of the CES-D questionnaire. No correlation was found between diurnal preference/sleep habits with anxiety symptoms for both BAI total score and its factors. However, women with PER3 genotype showed less interpesonal affect in depression symptomatology and more anxiety symptoms in four factors of the BAI questionnaire.

Limitations: Mainly because this study was based on self-report questionnaires and was limited to undergraduate students aging 18 to 30 years old.

Conclusion: These results reinforce a role for sleep and diurnal preference in depression, and PER3 VNTR polymorphism in anxiety symptomatology, particularly in women.