Seasonal affective disorder: causes, symptoms and treatment

Have you ever felt down, sad and seemingly depressed during a specific time of year? You may have seasonal depression (seasonal depression in English) and you need to see a specialist. Also known as winter depression or seasonal affective disorder, this phenomenon is characterized by a pattern of symptoms very similar to those of depression. However, the disorder appears strongly during certain times of the year and then seems to fade.

If you want to clear up any doubts, in the following Psychology-Online article, we will talk about Seasonal Affective Disorder: Causes, Symptoms, and Treatment. Also, if you keep reading this article to the end, you will find a very useful test to know if you have seasonal depression.

Index

1. What is seasonal depression
2. Symptoms of seasonal affective disorder
3. Causes of seasonal affective disorder
4. Seasonal affective disorder in spring and summer
5. Treatment of seasonal affective disorder
6. Affective emotional disorder: TEST

This disorder was discovered in 1984 by Rosenthal and his collaborators.^[1]. This team discovered during their research that certain people had a pattern of symptoms very similar to those of depression but these symptoms only appeared during certain times of the year, generally coinciding with the coldest months and with less light. Rostenhal's team called this phenomenon "seasonal depression".

Normally, this phenomenon begins during adolescence and occurs during the autumn-winter seasons, where people who seem to present seasonal affective disorder (or SAD) are down, irritable, frustrated and with other symptoms similar to those of the disorder depressant. However, studies reveal some characteristics that do not fit with a simple picture of depression.

The symptoms of winter depression are very similar to the main symptoms of a depressed person but with some characteristics that we must highlight:

• Hypersomnia: abnormal increase in hours of sleep.
• Hyperphagia: increased hunger and behavior of eating abruptly and without any apparent physiological explanation, with a tendency to ingest carbohydrates (bread, cereals, pasta, sugar and pastries)
• Weight gain: contrary to the weight loss characteristic of depressive disorder

What are the symptoms of depression?

Apart from the specific diagnostic picture of seasonal depression, we also highlight the following characteristic symptoms of a most common depressive picture:

• Hopelessness
• Low spirits
• Frustration
• Irritability
• Hyposexuality: decreased sex drive
• Social isolation
• Decreased ability to concentrate
• Anhedonia: inability to enjoy certain stimuli and activities
• Abulia: lack of will or motivation to perform tasks

It is important to mention that emotional affective disorder can lead to a major depression or in cyclothymic if it is not treated properly, so that, although the symptoms seem to subside, it is It is important to see a specialist if we perceive that seasonal depression lasts longer than habitual.

Normally, this type of disorder usually occurs in winter due to a lack of melatonin and exposure to light (which is why it is often known as winter depression). However, all the possible causes of SAD and why the symptoms of hyperphagia and hypersomnia occur have been thoroughly studied.

Thus, we can affirm that seasonal depression is caused by the interaction of the following factors:

• Decreased sun exposure: when our retina captures less light, more melatonin is produced during the day, which unbalances serotonin levels and causes hypersomnia (increased tiredness and hours of sleep when day)
• Decreased serotonin levels: serotonin is known as the hormone of happiness, this hormone is responsible for keeping us energetic and active during the day, when this hormone is out of whack, our mood drops and we feel more tired and irritable
• Other causes of seasonal depression may be related to cold and social isolation that the weather conditions conducive. In spring and summer we have more hours of sunshine and the weather encourages us to go out and enjoy outdoor activities more, unlike in autumn and winter.

Curiosities of seasonal depression

Do you want to know why in winter we tend to eat more and why one of the symptoms of winter depression is wanting to eat carbohydrates?

Our body detects the hormonal imbalance produced by low sun exposure and sends signals to the nervous system so that it looks for some way to readjust. To find melatonin in a natural way, we must consume foods rich in carbohydrates such as bread or pasta and therefore, in an almost unconscious way, our body seeks to regulate itself itself.

Is it possible that this depressive disorder occurs at a time of high sun exposure? While it is true that most people who suffer from seasonal depression suffer from it in the fall and winter. Between 1 and 5% of the US population suffers from SAD (seasonal affective disorder) during spring and summer^[2].

However, causes of emotional affective disorder in summer they are quite different:

• The high temperatures they affect the activation levels of some people who do not tolerate heat well.
• The regards from previous summers
• Low self-esteem and bad body image They can cause this sudden sadness and hopelessness during the hottest and sunniest months of the year.

Focusing on winter depression as the main expression of seasonal affective disorder or SAD, the effects of different psychological therapies have been studied to treat it in a effective. One of the most successful treatments has turned out to be phototherapy^[3].

Phototherapy is characterized by being a treatment in which the patient receives sun exposure artificially, thus replacing the lack of light that we suffer in the autumn and winter months.

Other therapies that have been effective are the following:

• Cognitive behavioral therapy for depression
• Mindfulness and meditation
• Exercises to encourage positive thinking
• Use of prescription antidepressants

In order to find out and evaluate if you have SAD, it is very important that pay attention to your emotional state over the weeks and see if your periods of sadness coincide with the months of October to February. If so, you should consult a specialist for a diagnosis based on the symptoms you present.

The same team that discovered seasonal affective disorder also developed a questionnaire called Seasonal Pattern Assessment Questionnaire (SPAQ) where they collected the main symptoms already mentioned throughout this article^[4].

Online depression test

There are several psychological tests that can help you know if you have SAD or depression. In Psychology-Online, we recommend doing the following: Beck's depression test.

This article is merely informative, in Psychology-Online we do not have the power to make a diagnosis or recommend a treatment. We invite you to go to a psychologist to treat your particular case.

If you want to read more articles similar to Seasonal affective disorder: causes, symptoms and treatment, we recommend that you enter our category of Clinical psychology.

1. Wehr, T. A., Sack, D. A., & Rosenthal, N. AND. (1987). Seasonal affective disorder with summer depression and winter hypomania. The American journal of psychiatry.
2. Rosen, L. N., Targum, S. D., Terman, M., Bryant, M. J., Hoffman, H., Kasper, S. F.,... & Rosenthal, N. AND. (1990). Prevalence of seasonal affective disorder at four latitudes. Psychiatry research, 31(2), 131-144.
3. Kasper, S., Rogers, S. L., Yancey, A., Schulz, P. M., Skwerer, R. G., & Rosenthal, N. AND. (1989). Phototherapy in individuals with and without subsyndromal seasonal affective disorder. Archives of General Psychiatry.
4. Magnusson, A. (1996). Validation of the seasonal pattern assessment questionnaire (SPAQ). Journal of affective disorders, 40(3), 121-129.