One in four people with depression may be running on a broken body clock — and now it has a name

For years, some people with depression were told their illness was "treatment resistant" — the usual medicines simply did not work. Researchers at the University of Sydney, studying more than 10,000 Australians with severe, recurrent depression, have found that nearly a quarter of them — 2,604 people — share a distinct pattern they call "circadian depression." They sleep longer when they are low, wake up feeling exhausted, are natural night owls, and their symptoms shift with the seasons. Their body clock — the internal system that times sleep, mood, energy and appetite — is out of step, and standard antidepressants barely touch it. But clock-based help can: light therapy, melatonin-based medicines and steadier sleep-wake routines target the timing itself. The study, published in the British Journal of Psychiatry, reframes the problem — not untreatable, just mistimed.

SDG 3 · Good health and well-being — Mechanism: tech innovation