seasonal affective disorder
Also known as winter depression, SAD, seasonal depression, Seasonal mood disorder, depressive disorder with seasonal pattern, winter blues, January blues
mental depression that involves presentation of depressive symptoms only during a specific season of the year
Key facts
- Other names
- Seasonal mood disorder, depressive disorder with seasonal pattern, winter depression, winter blues, January blues, summer depression, seasonal depression
- Specialty
- Psychiatry
via Wikipedia infobox
Research
1,980 papers- Seasonal Affective Disorder: Common Questions and Answers.American family physician · 2020
- Forty years of seasonal affective disorder.Psychiatria polska · 2024
- Seasonal affective disorder.Lancet (London, England) · 1998
- Seasonal affective disorder.American family physician · 2012
- Seasonal affective disorder.American family physician · 2006
via PubMed
~18 min read
Article
Seasonal affective disorder (SAD, colloquially referred to as seasonal depression) is a mood disorder subset in which people who typically have normal mental health throughout most of the year exhibit depressive symptoms at the same time each year. It is commonly, but not always, associated with the reductions or increases in total daily sunlight hours that occur during the winter or summer.
Common symptoms include sleeping too much, having little to no energy, and overeating. The condition in the summer can include heightened anxiety. However, there are significant differences in the duration, severity, and symptoms of each individual's experience of SAD. For instance, in a fifth of patients, the disorder completely resolves in five to eleven years, whereas for 33–44% of patients, it progresses into non-seasonal major depression.