Since I am from Southern California, I am used to 90 degree summers and 65 degree winters. It is usually always sunny outside and rarely rains, even to the point that California is currently in a severe drought. As I have been told and have experienced over the last few weeks at Penn State, Pennslyvania’s weather is very different from that of my hometown. I have also been told that this means not only an adjustment for my wardrobe, but also possibly my level of happiness during the colder months. Is Winter Depression a real thing? If it is, is it something I should be worried about?
According to the Mayo Clinic, seasonal depression is in fact a real thing. Seasonal affective disorder (SAD) is a form of depression and a mood disorder that is related to the changes in seasons and the shortening of daylight hours. People with SAD show symptoms that typically start in the fall and continue throughout the winter, as this disorder follows a regular pattern. During these seasons with reduced sunlight, your body’s circadium rhythm, which is a 24 hour- internal clock that responds to light and darkness, can be affected. One theory is that the reduced sunlight during the fall and the winter consequently reduces serotonin levels. Without normal serotonin levels regulating a person’s mood, the result can be feelings of depression and ultimately start symptoms of seasonal affective disorder or “Winter Depression”.
Many people with SAD report feeling depressed for most of the day and for multiple days in a row. They also report having low energy, sleeping problems, and difficulty concentrating. Many also experience changes in their appetite and have thoughts of suicide. People with SAD specifically during the Winter report oversleeping, being more irritable, and gaining a lot of weight due to craving foods high in carbohydrates.
Most doctors will recommend that people suffering with Seasonal Affective Disorder need to get outside early in the morning to get natural light. Treatment options include antidepressants such as Bupropian (Wellbutrin) or light therapy. Light therapy usually improves symptoms within just a couple days of sessions. However, researchers have continued to question whether or not the placebo effect plays a key role in light therapy. In one experiment done by Charmane Eastman, PhD, 96 participants who had SAD were randomly assigned to 1 of 3 treatments for 4 weeks to test the placebo effect on light therapy. The treatments exposed participants to 1.5 hours of either morning light (light boxes), evening light (light boxes), or a morning light placebo (from generators not light boxes). The results of the study showed that there were no difference between the real light and placebo after the 4 weeks of treatment. The study also showed that the bright light therapy had a specific antidepressant effect after 3 weeks.
So now that I know “Winter Depression” is a real thing, should I be worried about it affecting me? According to data from WebMD, I should be a little worried about this disorder because data shows that this disorder is more common for people living in northern latitudes. Women are also more likely than men to suffer. However, this may be due to hormonal factors being a third variable because SAD is less common in women after menopause. I can help avoid seasonal affective disorder by spending some time outside every day and continuing to stay involved with friends and social activities. It is also important to eat a well balanced diet for energy and to exercise for at least 30 minutes a day five times a week. Although being a female living in northern latitudes increases my chances of being affected, I should not be too worried because SAD only affects 3% of the US population.
Sources:
https://newsinhealth.nih.gov/issue/Jan2013/feature1
http://www.webmd.com/depression/features/seasonal-affective-disorder?page=3
http://archpsyc.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=204290&resultclick=1
http://psychcentral.com/lib/10-things-you-dont-know-about-seasonal-affective-disorder/2/
http://www.cnn.com/2013/12/26/health/winter-depression/
I wrote a blog on the same topic and this is a really interesting topic. Its crazy to think that something like sunlight can affect us in such a way! I think the study you included in your blog is valuable because light therapy could be relatively inexpensive fix to seasonal depression in lieu of pharmaceuticals. I think you would be interested in a study that explores the efficacy of light-therapy versus traditional anti-depressants… so here one is!
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16648320
Also, did you know that SAD can actually affect people in the summer too? I wonder if anybody in California would benefit from a few weeks in Happy Valley!
I’m right there with you, coming from the west coast (Phoenix, AZ) I feel like there’s really no shame in thinking twice about the weather here since we’ll have some drastic changes to get used to! I’m guessing you chose Penn State for the same reasons as me, to actually get to experience all four seasons. Although, as you may have never experienced such an extreme the summer heat in Cali, back in AZ it seemed endless. So as I read through your post, sufficient evidence supports many of the studies’ and your claims, which got me thinking… I sometimes feel like the hot weather back home really took a toll on my mood. Could there be a “Summer/Hot Weather Depression”? Went ahead and gathered a studies’ conclusion regarding fatigue, anxiety, and depression symptoms of causal factors like hot weather.
This is a very interesting topic! I actually did a blog last period very similar to this called, “Can Weather Affect Your Mood.” Your should check it out! I think that this is definitely a big problem. I always feel very unmotivated during the cold. I am always struggling to get myself to go out with my friends. As you said, a cure for SAD is light boxes. I researched light boxes and found information from Michael Terman, PhD, Director of the Center for Light Treatment and Biological Rhythms. Terman said, “Light boxes are portable, visible light sources which provide up to 10,000 lux of illumination — 10 to 25 times as bright as ordinary lighting.” I really enjoyed reading your blog!
I think that I am a victim of SAD personally. I truly notice a change in my own mood and morale when the weather is dreary and cold. Although contradictory to what would be suspected I found that suicide rates actually spike in the Spring instead of the Winter. The article that I found on this information says that perhaps people go in to a kind of hibernation in the Winter. People are exposed to less frustration and conflict because they are able to stay inside and have an excuse for not going out and interacting with others.
I’m from Pittsburgh, so I’m very much used to it being grey and miserable all the time in the winter. However, the one thing that interests me the most about this study is whether or not a person’s environment change has anything to do with the effects of SAD, compared to a person that may have lived in that area their whole life. Do residents from California or say Arizona experience SAD at similar rates throughout the year, or does this disorder have an exclusive tie to people that live in areas with worse winters? SAD can occur for different people in different times of the year because of circadium rhythm changes, but I’ve done some research and found that the winter is not the main cause if the subject in question has not experienced seasonal-affective episodes more times than non-seasonal episodes i.e. if they have problems with depression not necessarily related to SAD effects. Also, SAD is classified by consistently experiencing the episodes, more than two consecutive years of the same effect in a season. Moving to and from college might also be another important variable in this idea for you, especially since you get a share of both wonderful shiny weather and Happy Valley wintertime snowmageddon. Here’s a quick little list of facts about how SAD is diagnosed, etc. http://psychcentral.com/lib/10-things-you-dont-know-about-seasonal-affective-disorder/2/
I completely relate with you in that I am from sunny South Florida and am also scared for the winter months ahead. I thought it was interesting that winter depression only effects 3% of the population in the US. I did some research and discovered that the cold months of winter actually effect well over that portion of the population. The Cleveland Clinic explains that in the US alone, over 500,000 people suffer from SAD. However, 10% to 20% of the entire population suffers from a milder form of winter depression. This staggeringly high number gives insight on the effect sun (or lack thereof) has on an individual.
You are correct in saying that you shouldn’t be worried. However, through my observations, I have noticed that a lot of people change their moods between fall and winter. Being sad that the nice weather is gone and looking ahead to the long winter months in front of us. This can be known as theWinter Blues, which is milder than SAD. I think that your research was done well on your topic and I liked how you included ways to treat SAD.