Seasonal Affective Disorder

4 Pages 916 Words

Introduction:
In the recent years interest in seasonal affective disorder (SAD) has grown dramatically. The disorder, also known as winter depression, has a recurrent pattern of fall/winter onset and spring remission. Since the beginning of contemporary investigation into SAD, it has been compellingly related to seasonal change in sunlight.

Historical Overview:
Observations that affective illnesses are sensitive to seasonal and environmental influence was key to ancient theories about the origins of disease. In 460-370 B.C. Hippocrates taught that “it is cheifly the change of seasons which produce diseases, and in the seasons the great changes from cold to heat,” (Rosenthal & Blehar, p. 13). In the 4th century A.D. Posidonius summarized the views of many ancient physicians when he noted that mania is “an intermittent disease, which proceeds through a periodical circuit….It repeats itself once a year or more often…..Melancholy occurs in autumn whereas mania occurs in summer,” (Rosenthal & Blehar, p.14).
There are many early desriptions of patients who were probably suffering from SAD. According to Norman E. Rosenthal, one of the earliest noted examples of individuals with seasonal affective disorder are from the 17th century. Ann Grenville (1642-1691), suffered for numerous years from “regularly recurring winter depressions and summer manias,” (Rosenthal & Blehar, p.14). In 1825, the French psychiatrist Esquirol described a male patient from Belgium who for three consecutive winters had suffered depressive episodes, which lifted in the spring. The psychiatrist advised the patient to spend the following winter in Italy, and his winter depression resulted much milder (Partonen, p.3).
In 1946, the German physician, Hellmut Marx, recognized winter depression in four men during an Arctic winter and even described the overeating that often accompanies the condition. Marx identified the lack of light as a...