[Nikko]

What is seasonal affective disorder (SAD)?
If you are depressed during the shorter days of winter but feel happier and more energetic in spring and summer, you may have seasonal affective disorder (SAD). SAD is a type of depression that affects you at the same time each year, usually in the fall or winter. But as the days lengthen in spring and summer, the depression lifts.

What causes SAD?
Shorter days of winter and lack of light are considered one cause of seasonal depression, especially for people who move to extreme northern climates, where winter days are very short or seasonal differences in the amount of daylight are extreme.1, 2 However, researchers are studying other possible causes, including disturbances in the body's natural biological clock (circadian rhythms) or problems with the regulation of a brain chemical (neurotransmitter) called serotonin.

What are the symptoms?
Symptoms of SAD include irritability, sadness, anxiety, increased appetite and a craving for carbohydrate, weight gain, decreased activity and a need for more sleep, drowsiness during the daytime, and problems with work and relationships.

Symptoms begin and end around the same time each year for each person, usually starting in September or October and ending in April or May.

How is SAD diagnosed?
A doctor will base his or her diagnosis of SAD on whether you have been depressed in the winter and recovered in the spring or summer for at least 2 years in a row. These dramatic mood swings in response to changes in seasons are what differentiate SAD from nonseasonal depression.

Although many of the symptoms for depression and SAD are the same, your doctor will look for increased appetite (especially cravings for carbohydrate), weight gain, and excessive sleeping as symptoms that help diagnose whether you have seasonal depression. Your doctor may also ask if a close relative-a parent or sibling-had seasonal depression.

How is it treated?
Treatment for SAD includes light therapy, in which you sit at a certain distance from artificial bright lights, usually in the morning. Another form of light therapy called dawn simulation is also used. With dawn simulation, lights in your bedroom are programmed to come on gradually a few hours before you wake up in the morning.

Your doctor may also prescribe antidepressant medications, such as fluoxetine (for example, Prozac). Fluoxetine is a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) that can improve the balance of certain brain chemicals that regulate mood.

Who is affected by SAD?
You are more likely to develop seasonal affective disorder if you are a female between the ages of 15 and 55. Between 60% and 90% of people with SAD are women, and those who have a relative with SAD are more likely to develop it. Older teens and young adults are also at risk for SAD. People living farther away from the equator develop SAD more often, but you can develop it no matter where you live.3 The risk of developing SAD for the first time decreases as you age.

[mrsD]

for almost a year. I don't use it in the summer however.

I have a thread about it:
http://neurotalk.psychcentral.com/sh...highlight=saga

I started it up this October to avoid the horrible crash I had last winter.

My son even borrowed it, and liked it and I gave him mine, and bought a new
one.

I use it carefully... right now not every day...but since daylight savings changed I am using it more.

Anyone with bipolar should have a doctor's supervision with it.
Also I think you need support nutrients to help with the serotonin synthesis.
B6 and now the tryptophan that just became available.

My problem is excess napping and sleep during the winter. I don't need naps with only 1/2 hr on the visor each morning. My pain levels are much lower as well.

I would caution bipolar patients to seriously get supervision with light therapy.
It can push you into a hyper mode...very quickly.

I only use the lower setting still. And so does my son. He had an ADHD diagnosis with anxiety as a child. The psychologist said -- anxiety means depression..and as he has grown up, some depression seems to be there...at least the irritable kind. For folks with mild problems, I think light therapy is useful. But I would wonder for the more serious patient!

[Mari]

Originally Posted by mrsd

I would caution bipolar patients to seriously get supervision with light therapy.
It can push you into a hyper mode...very quickly.

I used a light box about a year and a half ago for a week and got tremendous anxiety and drepression.

Use these tools only with the help of a pdoc who knows about it. And use only the brands that pdocs are familiar with.

Mari

[shiney sue]

This was brought up ,when I lived in MI. i needed the light..My son uses
it in MN., and Daughter in Portland...I'm off now in Mo. music with
the light helps as does Dr. Thanks Sue

[Nikko]

When I lived back in the North East, I suffered from SAD, it would start as soon as the clock's were changed back and last through the winter.

I use to go to the tanning salon, it helped somewhat.

Then in the Spring, I would be alive again.

Now that I live in the South West, where we don't change our clocks, hardly ever have rain, the sun is always shining.

Winter is not winter here, it's in the 60's or so during the days. The night get cool, the 40's or so.

I feel much better living in this climate. I don't miss the snow, or cold temps with that wind chill factor.

I heard those lamps do help too. I never got one, they were expensive at the time. Hoping whomever lives in those cold/snowy states have a mild winter. and a early Spring.

Nikko