What is Seasonal Affective Disorder ?
Each year millions of Americans are troubled by seasonal affective disorder. This condition, only in the spotlight recently, affects a person's mood to a degree that can impact every aspect of daily living.
What is seasonal affective disorder?
Seasonal affective disorder is an affliction that makes an otherwise normally mentally healthy individual become depressed and withdrawn in the winter months. This can be severe, causing an individual to sleep for excessive periods of time, not get enough sleep, overeat or become lethargic. This can affect an individual's job, family, and social life. With mild to severe depression, these effects are known to develop during the onset of winter, then clear up at signs of summer.
What causes seasonal affective disorder?
Seasonal affective disorder is believed to be caused by lack of sunlight during the winter months. Sunlight improves serotonin level production in the body, and this ability can be diminished without proper light exposure. Serotonin has been established to be a primary component in improving mood. When serotonin levels increase, mood is much improved.
How is seasonal affective disorder treated?
Special light boxes have been designed and have shown to improve mood in almost all individuals with season affective disorder. Using this light therapy combined with anti-depressants in severe cases has been known to almost completely alleviate the imbalance. Also, some studies have shown that increasing vitamin D aids in increasing serotonin production, and increasing those levels also assisted in reducing the symptoms of seasonal affective disorder.
What are the symptoms?
Symptoms of seasonal affective disorder include overeating (especially fats or sugary foods), general lethargy, oversleeping, insomnia, problems waking up, lack of concentration and overall depression.
The history
Seasonal affective disorder was first proposed by Norman Rosenthal, a medical doctor in the mid-1980s who after a personal experience began experimenting with light exposure and mood. His hypothesis proved true when exposure to light began to improve mood in many patients with what was then diagnosed as simple depression.
The dangers
Seasonal affective disorder is not to be taken lightly; it is a legitimate mental disorder. In a large number of cases, when seasonal affective disorder is not properly diagnosed or treated, a major depressive disorder can be the result. Research from www.ncpamd.com also hypothesizes there is a link between chronic seasonal depressive disorder and bipolar disorder.
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