Social Rhythm Research Articles

The Effectiveness of Interpersonal and Social Rhythm Therapy on Alexithymia and Self-Regulation in Individuals with Substance Use Disorder in Outpatient Centers

The Effectiveness of Interpersonal and Social Rhythm Therapy on Alexithymia and Self-Regulation in Individuals with Substance Use Disorder in Outpatient Centers

Long day's journey into sleep.

My long day's journey into sleep began as an adolescent trying to manage my evening chronotype. The relief, I felt when my undergraduate finals were scheduled at night and as a medical student being able to select psychiatry over surgery deepened my interest in sleep and chronobiology. That interest was allowed to flourish at the National Institute of Mental Health and then at Yale Medical School in setting up a sleep laboratory. The decision to move to the University of Pittsburgh in 1973 led to a 42-year adventure in which we were able to initiate research efforts on the psychobiology of depression. Our interest in social zeitgebers (daily routines) led directly to the development and testing of a treatment intervention for mood disorders, interpersonal, and social rhythm therapy. Our continued emphasis on sleep and circadian rhythms convinced us that sleep and circadian factors were central to all of health, based on the importance of connectivity between sleep and major metabolic and cell functions. This ongoing research motivated our strong desire to study the developmental aspects of sleep. Our success was influenced immensely by the presence of young scientists and a strong subsequent interest in career mentoring. Finally, as we left Pittsburgh in 2015, we became involved in the field of continuous objective monitoring using the commercial smartphone's behavioral sensing capabilities. Our journey is not over. We hope to explore the potential of these remarkable devices to improve our understanding of sleep/wake and circadian factors across all of health.

The Relationships between Emotion, Sense of Coherence, Social Rhythm and Positive Mental Health in Chinese University Students during COVID-19

Aim: This study explored positive mental health during the COVID-19 epidemic control period and further examined emotion, sense of coherence, social rhythm may contribute to positive mental health among a sample of 521 university students in China. Method: The questionnaires contained items concerning demographic information, Positive Mental Health Scale, Positive Affect and Negative Affect Scale, Sense of Coherence Scale and Brief Social Rhythm Scale. Results: Analysis of the data showed that positive mental health was significantly positively correlated with positive affect and sense of coherence, but negatively correlated with negative affect and social rhythm. Regression analysis also showed that positive affect, negative affect, sense of coherence, and social rhythm could predict the level of positive mental health of individuals in the context of COVID-19 epidemic control management in Chinese university students. Conclusions: Results suggest it is of great significance to keep positive affect, sense of coherence and regular social rhythm for maintaining the mental health of individuals under the influence of the spread of COVID-19. It would be useful to carefully measure each of these variables and investigate other potential factors related to positive mental health with the possibility that emotion, sense of coherence and social rhythm are mediating variables.

Not so fast! Data temporalities in law enforcement and border control

In this paper, we investigate the temporal implications of data in law enforcement and border control. We start from the assumption that the velocity of knowledge and action is defined by heterogeneous formations and interactions of various actors, sites, and materials. To analyze these formations and interactions, we introduce and unpack the concept of “data temporality.” Data temporality explicates how the speed of knowledge and action in datafied environments unfolds in close correspondence with (1) variegated social rhythms, (2) technological inscriptions, and (3) the balancing of speed with other priorities. Specifically, we use the notion of data temporality as a heuristic tool to explore the entanglements of data and time within two case studies: Frontex’ Joint Operation Reporting Application and the predictive policing software PRECOBS. The analysis identifies two key themes in the empirical constitution of data temporalities. The first one pertains to the creation of events as reference points for temporally situated knowledge and action. And the second one pertains to timing and actionability, that is, the question of when interventions based on data analysis should be triggered.

Islanders’ Heterogenous Temporalities

This paper revisits the cultural stereotype of a sharp binary division between “summer” and “winter” temporalities in an island town in Croatia (Hvar). It highlights the existence of parallel and competing temporalities that generate heterogeneous social and individual rhythms. The overarching rhythm of summer tourism, which divides the year into “summer” (roughly between May and October) and “winter” (roughly between November and April), conceals other temporalities, both in the sense of how locals perceive and organise their temporal rhythms and in the sense of how they experience them. The article discusses these heterogeneous temporalities and how they orchestrate the locals’ lives, how they criss-cross and relate to one another, and how they transition into one another. Attention is directed to individual meanings and preferences, experiences, and resistance to the overwhelming rule of the rhythm of tourism.

Social and Behavioral Rhythms is Related to the Perception of Quality of Life in Old Adults

Introduction: The purpose is to verify in old adults if social and behavioral rhythms (SBRs) are correlated with a positive perception of the quality of life (QoL). Social and behavioral rhythms and related circadian biorhythms are known as central points in the pathophysiology of bipolar disorders. A secondary aim is to see if a similar relationship can be found in Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) in old adults. Sample: 141 people aged ≥65 years (58.9% Female). Methods: Each subject was evaluated using the Social and Behavioral Rhythms Scale (in which higher scores show more dysfunctional SRBs); SF-12 for QoL and a screening tool for depressive symptoms. They underwent a medical evaluation and blood level assays including cholesterol and triglycerides. The medical diagnoses including MDD were taken into account. Results: The Social and Behavioral Rhythms Scale score correlated inversely with SF-12 score (p<0.001) and positively with PHQ9 (p<0.0001). People with MDD had a higher score on social rhythms than controls without (p<0.01). The study highlighted, for the first time, that social and behavioral rhythms have a role in old adults living in the community. Conclusion: Further longitudinal studies with a sufficient number of individuals will be required to confirm these data and clarify causal links of the association.

Plastic Culture: an Approach to the Study and the Main Characteristics

The author discusses the phenomenon of plastic culture and art. An expanded understanding of body movement is proposed, including gestures, poses, facial expressions, expression, the involvement of the artist and the viewer in external social rhythms and in music, internal movements and rhythms of the soul. All these movements are organized within the framework of plastic culture, although they exist by themselves, they have different sources of formation and areas of functioning. The immersion of a person into an aesthetic, more broadly artistic culture that has permeated, since antiquity, even the ordinary life of a person, not to mention specialization in a particular kind of art, triggers the process of organizing human movements and rhythms. The author identifies two factors that significantly determine this organization: the conditions and requirements of the sphere of art and the artistic language, understood extremely broadly. He characterizes the sphere of art with the features of publicity, differences from ordinary life and work, art opens an outlet to another, usually attractive, reality (to gods, beauty, ideals, to another world), sets a special type of communication. Describing the artistic language, the author points out that meaningful constructions of this language perform a different task than ordinary signs: they do not set unambiguous denotations, but should introduce into artistic reality and help the viewer to construct events in this reality. On the basis of these provisions, an analysis of the formation of dance is proposed and a characteristic of plastic art and culture is given.

Efficacy of Interpersonal and Social Rhythm Therapy on Sleep Disorders and Psychological Adjustment among Patients with Bipolar Disorder

Efficacy of Interpersonal and Social Rhythm Therapy on Sleep Disorders and Psychological Adjustment among Patients with Bipolar Disorder

Avatars' Social Rhythms in Online Games Indicate Their Players' Depression.

Data sets on gameplay, called digital biomarkers, contain many characteristics of game players and are associated with mental health problems. In fact, an avatar's behavior during an online game is said to be related to its player's mental health. Based on this information, we estimated the depressive state of players based on their avatar's behavioral logs. There were 3,361 participants who were players of Pigg Party, a popular Japanese online game application. In April 2020, the players logged into the Pigg Party and answered a questionnaire on depression. In May 2020, of the 3,361 participants, 658 players again logged into the Pigg Party and answered the depression questionnaire. Their responses to the questionnaire and behavioral logs of Pigg Party for April and May comprised the data sets used in the study. The data set from April showed that individuals without depression were more likely to perform activities in a 24-hour cycle than individuals with depression. Furthermore, the popular model of the time series data set trained on the April data set predicted depression in the May data set with an accuracy of around 0.3 to 0.4. The results suggest that these models are difficult to predict for sparse time series data sets, such as the study's data set, and require refinement.

The impact of social rhythm and sleep disruptions on waist circumference after job loss: A prospective 18-month study.

This study prospectively examined change in waist circumference (WC) as a function of daily social rhythms and sleep in the aftermath of involuntary job loss. It was hypothesized that disrupted social rhythms and fragmented/short sleep after job loss would independently predict gains in WC over 18 months and that resiliency to WC gain would be conferred by the converse. Eligible participants (n=191) completed six visits that included standardized measurements of WC. At the baseline visit, participants completed the social rhythm metric and daily sleep diary and wore an actigraph on their nondominant wrist each day for a period of 2 weeks. When controlling for obesity and other covariates, WC trajectories decreased for individuals with more consistent social rhythms, more activities in their sdiocial rhythms, and higher sleep quality after job loss. WC trajectories did not change for individuals with lower scores on these indicators. The frequency and consistency of social rhythms after job loss play a key role in WC loss. These findings support the implementation of social rhythm interventions after job loss, a potentially sensitive time for the establishment of new daily routines that have an impact on metabolic health.

Personalized digital intervention for depression based on social rhythm principles adds significantly to outpatient treatment.

We conducted a 16-week randomized controlled trial in psychiatric outpatients with a lifetime diagnosis of a mood and/or anxiety disorder to measure the impact of a first-of-its-kind precision digital intervention software solution based on social rhythm regulation principles. The full intent-to-treat (ITT) sample consisted of 133 individuals, aged 18–65. An exploratory sub-sample of interest was those individuals who presented with moderately severe to severe depression at study entry (baseline PHQ-8 score ≥15; N = 28). Cue is a novel digital intervention platform that capitalizes on the smartphone's ability to continuously monitor depression-relevant behavior patterns and use each patient's behavioral data to provide timely, personalized “micro-interventions,” making this the first example of a precision digital intervention of which we are aware. Participants were randomly allocated to receive Cue plus care-as-usual or digital monitoring only plus care as usual. Within the full study and depressed-at-entry samples, we fit a mixed effects model to test for group differences in the slope of depressive symptoms over 16 weeks. To account for the non-linear trajectory with more flexibility, we also fit a mixed effects model considering week as a categorical variable and used the resulting estimates to test the group difference in PHQ change from baseline to 16 weeks. In the full sample, the group difference in the slope of PHQ-8 was negligible (Cohen's d = −0.10); however, the Cue group demonstrated significantly greater improvement from baseline to 16 weeks (p = 0.040). In the depressed-at-entry sample, we found evidence for benefit of Cue. The group difference in the slope of PHQ-8 (Cohen's d = −0.72) indicated a meaningfully more rapid rate of improvement in the intervention group than in the control group. The Cue group also demonstrated significantly greater improvement in PHQ-8 from baseline to 16 weeks (p = 0.009). We are encouraged by the size of the intervention effect in those who were acutely ill at baseline, and by the finding that across all participants, 80% of whom were receiving pharmacotherapy, we observed significant benefit of Cue at 16 weeks of treatment. These findings suggest that a social rhythm-focused digital intervention platform may represent a useful and accessible adjunct to antidepressant treatment (https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT03152864?term=ellen+frank&draw=2&rank=3).

Las sociedades del cansancio: definiciones, experiencias y reflexiones durante la pandemia

This text objective is to describe, explain and reflect the current society in the midst of the pandemic, in relation to tiredness or fatigue. In the sense of mental health symptoms or disorders whose main ingredient or one of them is fatigue. This is done through specialized definitions, as well as what people say they feel about it. Apparently we are in a society where fatigue reigns, not only that produced by the work or social rhythm, consumerism and productivity, performance and self-demand of some sectors, but also the pandemic and especially confinement, homeoffice and distance education have increased fatigue and the realization of it. So, this text is also an invitation to reflect on the subject.

Relationship between baseline cognition and 18-month treatment response in bipolar disorder

BackgroundTo date, few studies have examined baseline cognitive function as a predictor of clinical outcome following treatment in bipolar disorder (BD). The aim of this analysis was therefore to examine the relationship between baseline cognitive function and treatment outcome in a sample of young adults with BD receiving Interpersonal Social Rhythm Therapy (IPSRT) or Specialist Supportive Care (SSC) with adjunctive pharmacotherapy. MethodsEighty-six BD patients underwent baseline cognitive testing and completed 18 months of IPSRT or SCC. Univariate analyses examined the relationship between baseline cognitive function (global and individual cognitive domains) and change in mood symptom burden, and psychosocial functioning, from baseline to treatment-end. ResultsBaseline global cognition was not predictive of change in mood symptom burden over 18 months of treatment. However, poorer baseline psychomotor speed performance was associated with less improvement in mood symptom burden at treatment-end. Neither baseline global cognition nor individual cognitive domain scores were associated with change in psychosocial functioning. LimitationsDue to the exploratory nature of the study, correction was not made for multiple comparisons. Data was obtained from a relatively small sample and has been the subject of prior analysis, thereby increasing the likelihood of chance findings. ConclusionAlthough global cognition was not associated with outcome, when examining individual domains, poorer baseline psychomotor speed predicted less change in mood symptom burden following 18-months of psychotherapy and pharmacotherapy. This suggests that pre-treatment measures of psychomotor speed may help to identify those who require additional, and more targeted, intervention. Further large-scale research is required.

Like clockwork? (Re)imagining rhythms and routines when living with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS).

Temporal trajectories of health, illness and disability-from biographical change to micro-embodied practices within social time-are important strands within medical sociology and disability studies. Drawing upon a UK-based qualitative study using diaries and follow-up interviews to explore everyday life with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), this article explores routines when living with the condition. It focuses specifically on accounts of routines being anticipated, slowed down and stretched out to accommodate and/or care for bodies, with personal and social rhythms weaved in, out and with each other. Such reflections are told through participants' accounts of knowing routines and rhythms, stretching out and pacing morning routines to care for the body and how everyday practices are reimagined as the body and the social meet. Drawing upon the concept of 'Crip Time' where the social bends to meet with the body, this article seeks to illuminate important intersections between medical sociology and disability studies through accounts of living with IBS. This article demonstrates the entanglement of structural, disabling temporal rhythms and embodied temporalities, through an acknowledgement of routines reimagined. It offers a contribution to both medical sociology and disability studies in reimagining social lives with embodied temporalities in mind.

Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on psychological distress and biological rhythm in China's general population: A path analysis model.

When facing major emergency public accidents, men and women may react differently. Our research aimed to assess the influence of gender difference on social support, information preference, biological rhythm, psychological distress, and the possible interaction among these factors during the COVID-19 pandemic. In this cross-sectional study, 3,237 respondents aged 12 years and older finished the online survey. Levels of social support, information preference, biological rhythm, and psychological distress were assessed using validated scales. A path analysis was conducted to explore possible associations among these variables. The path analysis indicated that women with high levels of social support had a lower possibility of biological rhythm disorders and lower levels of somatization symptoms of psychological distress during the COVID-19 pandemic. The influence of social support on somatization symptoms was exerted via biological rhythm. Women tended to believe both negative and positive information, while men preferred more extreme information. Our results highlighted gender difference in study variables during the COVID-19 pandemic and the importance of social support in alleviating psychological distress and biological rhythm disorders. Moreover, we confirmed that information preference differed significantly by somatization symptoms of psychological distress, suggesting extra efforts to provide more individualized epidemic information. Longitudinal research is required to further explore casual inferences.

Research on Virtual Teaching Mode of Chinese Traditional Virtue

Virtue education is very important in youth education in various countries, and the accepted people of virtue education 
 is mainly teenagers. However, with the influence of social rhythm and various external factors, many adults’ virtue education is 
 missing. The current virtue education is suitable for all citizens.

0693 A Characterization of Social Rhythms in Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder

Abstract Introduction Recent evidence has shown that obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is linked to shifts in biologically driven sleep timing, indicating the role of biological rhythms within the disorder. Specifically, initial evidence suggests that biological disruptions in OCD may play a role in symptom severity and OCD treatment efficacy. Germane to the study of biological rhythmicity is the consideration of social rhythms within OCD. Disruptions in social rhythmicity are found in other psychological disorders associated with biological rhythm vulnerabilities (i.e., Bipolar Spectrum Disorder, Depression, and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.) Given the shared features and high rates of comorbidity between OCD and these disorders, it is reasonable that social rhythm disruptions would be found in OCD as well. As no research to date has examined this, we sought to examine the regularity and distribution of social rhythm in individuals with clinically significant obsessive-compulsive symptoms. Further, we examined the role of affect and symptom severity across OCD subtypes. Methods 19 adults meeting criteria for a primary diagnosis of obsessive-compulsive disorder completed the Social Rhythm Metric at home for a period of 7 days. As part of a larger study, participants completed measures of sleep (Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index), affect (Positive and Negative Affect Schedule), and obsessive-compulsive symptom severity and subtype (Obsessive-Compulsive Inventory) following diagnosis. Results We found the mean social rhythmicity in those with an OCD diagnosis to be 3.05 (SD=1.14.), similar to means found previously in other psychiatric disorders such as Bipolar Spectrum Disorder and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. Individuals with OCD who also reported delayed bedtimes were shown to have significantly lower social rhythmicity (p=.005) than those without delayed bedtimes. Additionally, we found that social rhythmicity correlated similarly across OCD subtypes and was not strongly correlated with negative affect. Conclusion In the current study, we provide a preliminary characterization of social rhythmicity in those with OCD. Results suggest that social rhythm may play a role in OCD similar to bipolar disorder and further study is warranted. Overall, this study contributes to burgeoning research into the association between biological rhythms and OCD. Support (If Any)

0210 Social rhythm regularity: Associations with sleep, circadian, mental health, and alcohol use outcomes in adolescents

Abstract Introduction Circadian rhythms and sleep regularity relate to a range of negative health outcomes, such as mental illness and substance abuse including binge drinking. According to the social zeitgeber hypothesis, the timing of key modifiable daily behaviors serves as time cues that entrain circadian rhythms, ostensibly stabilizing them and thereby improving health. The cross-day stability in timing of these behaviors (i.e., social rhythm regularity) is measured by SRM5; however, studies have not tested whether SRM5 correlates with circadian rhythm regularity based on physiological measures, such as dim light melatonin onset (DLMO). The current study examined whether SRM5 was associated with: (1) the regularity of circadian rhythms and/or sleep regularity metrics, and (2) sleep quality, depression, and binge drinking. Methods Late adolescents aged 18 to 22 years old who drink alcohol (n = 36; 61.1% female, Mage = 21.26) completed a self-reported sleep diary (including SRM5 items for first contact, start work, and dinner time), wore a wrist actigraph for 14 days, and completed 2 overnight visits to assess DLMO. We used the self-reported data to calculate SRM5 and standard deviation (StDev); actigraphy data to calculate composite phase deviation (CPD), social jet lag (SJL), and interdaily stability (IS); and DLMO data to calculate the stability of the circadian phase (Sunday minus Thursday). Participants also completed surveys that assessed global sleep quality, depressive symptoms, and frequency of binge drinking. Correlational analysis and hierarchical linear regression modeling were used. Results Higher SRM5 scores (i.e., higher social rhythm regularity) were associated with higher regularities of mid-sleep timing (r = –.48, p < .001) and total sleep duration (r = –.41, p = .01) based on StDev metrics but were not associated with IS (r = 13, p = .45), CPD (r = –.19, p = .28), SJL (r = –.07, p = .68), and stability of DLMO (r = –.003, p = .99). A post-hoc analysis found that higher stability of the “out of bed” item of SRM5 was related to higher stability of DLMO (b = –.11, se = .05, p = .03, r2 = .33). Higher SRM5 scores were associated with better sleep quality (b = –.73, se = .30, p = .02, r2 = .21), but were not with depressive symptoms or binge drinking Conclusion In contrast with the social zeitgeber hypothesis, SRM5 was not associated with circadian rhythm regularity measured by DLMO. However, social rhythm regularity is an important factor in predicting better sleep quality. This study provides a foundation for future research with better power to determine the extent to which social rhythms influence circadian stability and to better understand why social rhythm regularity relates to sleep quality. Support (If Any) This research was supported by the NIH NIAAA (R21AA023209-02 ), NHLBI (T32HL082610), and NIMH (T32MH019986)

Evaluation of a Circadian Rhythm and Sleep-Focused Mobile Health Intervention for the Prevention of Accelerated Summer Weight Gain Among Elementary School-Age Children: Protocol for a Randomized Controlled Feasibility Study.

BackgroundThe i♥rhythm project is a mobile health adaptation of interpersonal and social rhythm therapy designed to promote healthy sleep and behavioral rhythms among 5-8-year olds during summer for the prevention of accelerated summer weight gain.ObjectiveThis pilot study will examine the feasibility, acceptability, and preliminary efficacy of the i♥rhythm intervention. This will ensure that the research protocol and procedures work as desired and are acceptable to families in preparation for the fully powered randomized controlled trial. The proposed study will examine the willingness of participants to participate in the intervention and determine whether modifications to the intervention, procedures, and measures are needed before conducting a fully powered study. We will assess our ability to (1) recruit, consent, and retain participants; (2) deliver the intervention; (3) implement the study and assessment procedures; (4) assess the reliability of the proposed measures; and (5) assess the acceptability of the intervention and assessment protocol.MethodsThis study will employ a single-blinded 2-group randomized control design (treatment and no-treatment control) with randomization occurring after baseline (Time 0) and 3 additional evaluation periods (postintervention [Time 1], and 9 months [Time 2] and 12 months after intervention [Time 3]). A sample of 40 parent-child dyads will be recruited.ResultsThis study was approved by the institutional review board of Baylor College of Medicine (H-47369). Recruitment began in March 2021. As of March 2022, data collection and recruitment are ongoing.ConclusionsThis study will address the role of sleep and circadian rhythms in the prevention of accelerated summer weight gain and assess the intervention’s effects on the long-term prevention of child obesity.Trial RegistrationClinicalTrials.gov NCT04445740; https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT04445740.International Registered Report Identifier (IRRID)DERR1-10.2196/37002

Mental state, biological rhythm and social support among healthcare workers during the early stages of the COVID-19 epidemic in Wuhan

BackgroundThe COVID-19 pandemic has put the mental health of healthcare workers at risk. However, the potential psychosocial factors underlying mental health problems, such as depression and anxiety, require further investigation. The present study aimed to explore the factors that influence the mental state of healthcare workers. MethodsA total of 276 healthcare workers completed a set of online self-report questionnaires from February 4 to 7, 2020, in the following order: general information related to the COVID-19 outbreak, Biological Rhythms Interview of Assessment in Neuropsychiatry, Beck Depression Inventory-II, Beck Anxiety Inventory, and Social Support Rating Scale. ResultsOur study revealed that both social support and age moderated the ability of biological rhythm disturbance to exacerbate depression (R2 = 0.47; effect size f2 = 0.85). Higher levels of social support buffered the amplification of depression associated with increased biological rhythm disturbance in all age groups, and especially in younger individuals (mean age = 26.57, se = 0.04). Depressive symptoms were predicted by both social and sleeping rhythms, whereas anxiety symptoms were predicted only by social rhythm. Married individuals had lower biological rhythm disturbance ratings and higher social support ratings. Females also reported higher ratings in social support. ConclusionsOur study suggests that biological rhythm intervention along with social support can reduce the negative effect of biological rhythm disturbance on mood disorders, especially in younger people. We also provide evidence for the ability of social support to buffer stress in a major health crisis and demonstrate the effects of marital status and sex, which provide a different perspective for studying mental crisis management.