Latest Updates on SAD

For people who basked in the sun during the summer and relished the scent of springtime blossoms, moving towards shorter days and longer nights can be a shift to a season of depression. When this time of the year arrives, people experience the lackluster feeling, heightened lethargy and emerging need for more and more time to rest, increased appetite for carbohydrates and consequent weight gain, anxiety, crankiness, loss of libido and withdrawal from social interaction, and loss of interest in anything that they used to pursue with a passion. Though these symptoms only resurface at certain periods of the year, they do become tell tale signs that a person maybe suffering from a medical condition known as seasonal affective disorder or SAD.

Studies have shown that about six percent of Americans, in addition to people living in places located far from the equator, are prone to SAD. The decreased exposure to natural day light has been found to have significant effects on the way people feel about themselves, how they perform their daily activities and coexist normally in society.

The biological make up of a human being and its reaction to the amount of light it is exposed to plays a huge role in the research made about SAD. Similar to the way animals respond to the changes in weather and in their environment, humans also possess substances, which convey messages to the body, telling it how it should react. Hormones called melatonin and a neurotransmitter known as serotonin have effects on the individual and the potential to develop seasonal affective disorder.

Melatonin is secreted at night through the pineal gland that is controlled by the hypothalamus. The retinal nerves are connected to this area. Thus, the more melatonin is secreted, the more likely a person feels the need to sleep. Light can hinder the secretion of melatonin.

Meanwhile, the release of serotonin, which acts as a regulatory substance that controls one’s mood swings, drops during the winter and increases with more exposure to light.

Light therapy has been known to help alleviate the effects of seasonal affective disorder on patients. This kind of treatment proves to be a safe alternative for those who would rather not take medicines. Current standard dosage for the treatment has been set at thirty minutes of early morning exposure to a light box or any form of daylight paraphernalia that diffuses 10,000 lux of fluorescent light. the recipient of the treatment should not look directly at the light source. Instead, while engaged in the session, he should just continue with his daily activities, such as eating, reading, working by a computer. What is important is that the head and body stay within the lighted area for the duration of the session.

A growing positive response is also seen with SAD patients when the treatment is integrated with his sleep-wake cycle. Research conclusions all point to the same thing: light therapy, when given at just the right amount and at the right time will show promising results for SAD patients.

However, for those who do not respond as well to light therapy, SAD studies have looked to alternative treatments.

Michael Terman, PhD., a psychology professor from the Columbia Medical Center, has conducted a study using negatively charged ions on people with seasonal affective disorder. Patients were placed in a room equipped with small devices that emitted ion particles into the air silently. The air emission was not noticeable to the senses. A timer was set to release the particles automatically, usually before or right after the patients wake up. To further ensure exposure to the charged particles, patients wore a wrist strap that was grounded, and the small ion-emitting device was situated close to the patient’s head.

During this study, he did a comparison among 4 controlled groups, each of which received a different amount of light, and exposure to both low and high levels of negative ions. Findings revealed that SAD patients responded well to high levels of ions, similar to those who had positive results from receiving bright light therapy.

Though this is a very recent breakthrough, more studies have to be conducted to confirm the validity and further study the potential of this new form of treatment.

Other approaches to address SAD explore the cognitive and behavioral aspects of the individual.

SAD patients who had difficulty dealing with negative or challenging events in their life, and sulked because of their condition, were reported to be more prone to intensified degrees of SAD, as compared to those who take their condition relatively well.

Combinations of light therapy, cognitive and behavioral treatment were tested on a group of SAD patients. Under cognitive and behavioral treatment (CBT), patients were encouraged to involve themselves in enjoyable activities during wintertime. They were also given suggestions on how to adjust their behavior, and consequently, improve their mood. These patients showed improvement after a 6-week timeframe. After a year, a follow up was made to monitor the patients’ progress.

Even if they did not receive any additional treatment, those who received purely CBT had a lower number of reported SAD episodes. The reason behind this is that the patients were now able to apply the recommendations geared towards mood enhancement and behavioral change.

Another form of treatment is a combination of light therapy and antidepressants. Some studies have noted significant progress with patients who take antidepressants while undergoing bright light treatment. Although, a 3 year clinical study also showed that light therapy does just as well as Prozac, minus the side effects.

The most suitable kind of treatment really depends on the patient’s personality before treatment, and how well he responds to light boxes and lamps, antidepressants, CBT or a combination of all three.