Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) is a form of depression with symptoms that occur in the winter months, usually going to remission during the spring and summer.
Causes: It has long been known that sunlight, as it peaks and ebbs over the year, affects many animals’ seasonal activities such as hibernation or reproduction cycles. Apparently, humans are no exception. Researchers have tied SAD to melanin, a sleep related hormone that the human pineal gland produces and releases in the dark. Production of the hormone seems particularly active during winter, when days are shorter and darker.
In 1980, a researcher named Dr. Alfred Lewy discovered that very bright light blocks to release of melatonin in people- and relieves winter depression. Patients generally respond to bright light therapy within four days of starting treatment -relapsing within four days after stopping the therapy.
Because so many people respond to bright light treatment, it's assumed that light has an antidepressant effect, and there have been no research findings to indicate anything to the contrary. A definite link between the patient’s response and the way light affects melatonin, however, has not yet been established.
The disorder usually begins in early adulthood, and four times as many women as men are affected. For most people with SAD, January and February are the worst months.
Symptoms:
The symptoms for SAD are rather specific to avoid the misdiagnosis for depressive disorders
(1) Regularly occurring symptoms of depression (sad, anxious or “empty” moods; decreased energy and interest, etc.) during the winter months of at least three different years, two of them consecutively;
(2) At least three times as many instances of depression within a two-month time frame as during other times of the year;
(3) No other factors that could account for regular changes of mood (becoming unemployed every winter, etc.);
(4) Excessive eating and sleeping; weight gain.
|
|
johnhenson@clinicalsolutions.org