Okolo 100 millionov chelovek v mire ezhegodno zabolevaet depressiey. Rasprostranennost' depressiy - ot 4 do 10% v obshchey populyatsii, a risk perenesti depressiyu v techenie zhizni raven fakticheski 100%. Khronobiologicheskiy podkhod v izuchenii depressiy yavlyaetsya innovatsionnym napravleniem issledovaniy. Diapazon bioritmov s periodom bolee mesyatsa - makroritmy - pri retsidiviruyushchikh depressiyakh malo izuchen. Mezhdu tem, imenno eti ritmy yavlyayutsya opredelyayushchimi pri dolgosrochnom prognoze dinamiki zabolevaniya. V rabote, osnovannoy na bol'shom klinicheskom materiale, opredelyaetsya differentsial'no-diagnosticheskoe, prognosticheskoe, a takzhe terapevticheskoe i profilakticheskoe znachenie makroritmov endogennykh depressiy. Opisyvaetsya ierarkhiya makroritmicheskikh protsessov, daetsya original'naya klassifikatsiya makroritmov, otrazhayushchaya ikh svyaz' s retsidivami depressiy, opisyvayutsya kliniko-khronobiologicheskie "profili" techeniya zabolevaniy, issleduetsya zavisimost' retsidivov ot nekotorykh ekologicheskikh makroritmov (solnechnaya aktivnost', sezonnost') i nekotorykh individual'nykh khronobiologicheskikh faktorov (data rozhdeniya, vozrast nachala zabolevaniya, vozrastnye periody, "individual'nyy god").