Elsevier

Journal of Affective Disorders

Volume 208, 15 January 2017, Pages 54-55
Journal of Affective Disorders

Has the existence of seasonal affective disorder been disproven?

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jad.2016.08.041Get rights and content

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Statement of interest

Without any relevance to this work, Dr. Dorffner is shareholder and employee of the Siesta Group GmbH. Dr. Kasper received grants/research support, consulting fees and/or honoraria within the last three years from Angelini, AOP Orphan, AstraZeneca, Eli Lilly, Janssen, Krka, Lundbeck, Neuraxpharm, Pfizer, Pierre Fabre, Schwabe and Servier. Dr. Lanzenberger has received travel grants and/or speaker honoraria from AstraZeneca, Lundbeck, Dr. Willmar Schwabe GmbH, AOP Orphan, Janssen-Cilag and

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  • Seasonal variation in symptoms of depression: A Canadian population based study

    2019, Journal of Affective Disorders
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    Results have been conflicting for studies that investigated seasonal variation in depressive symptoms using general population samples and validated instruments (Levitt and Boyle, 2002; Traffanstedt et al., 2016). Therefore, the existence of SAD has become a point of contention (Traffanstedt et al., 2016; Winkler et al., 2017). Two population-based studies, from the U.S.A. and Norway, failed to identify seasonal variability in depressive symptoms, leading to the interpretation of SAD as “a folk psychological construct” (Hansen et al., 2011; Traffanstedt et al., 2016).

  • Seasonality of antidepressant prescriptions and sick leaves

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    The clinical diagnosis of SAD and most epidemiological and clinical studies on SAD rely on a history of seasonal mood episodes and are therefore subject to recall bias except in studies with a longitudinal design (Clery-Melin et al., 2018; Harmatz et al., 2000; Sakamoto et al., 1995; Wicki et al., 1992). The retrospective approach of the diagnosis of SAD was criticized before (Hansen et al., 2008; Traffanstedt et al., 2016; Winkler et al., 2017). Therefore, corroboration of the validity of SAD as a diagnostic entity by an alternative approach is an important line of research.

  • No evidence of seasonal variation in mild forms of depression

    2019, Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry
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    If this claim is true, then it would be possible to detect the increased number of mild depression cases that rise above the endemic levels of depression during fall/winter seasons. It has been argued that prospective follow-up designs are better suited to study this problem because of the two year time period required to support diagnosis (Winkler et al., 2017). However, the structure of diagnostic criteria is not a methodological constraint and two years of observation are not required to establish a contrast between occurrence of mild depression in spring/summer and fall/winter.

  • Seasonality of depressive symptoms during pregnancy

    2018, Psychiatry Research
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    However, in a recent study in the general population, consisting of 34,294 respondents, the authors could not find a relation between depressive symptoms and latitude, season, and sunlight, thereby questioning the validity of seasonal affective disorder (Traffanstedt et al., 2016). The findings of this study were however refuted because of several methodological and rational shortcomings, such as not including patient history and their cross-sectional approach (Winkler et al., 2017). Meliska et al. (2013) hypothesized that seasonal influences might contribute to worsening of already existing depressive symptoms, rather than being the cause of antepartum depressive symptoms.

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