Brookhaven Hospital: Mental Health Treatment for Behavioral Health Problems, Chemical Dependency, Eating Disorders, Brain Injuries, and Renewal Christian Treatment and Recovery

Monday, December 31, 2007 5:11 PM
posted by Aric Thorpe, MHR

SAD: Season Affective Disorder

It's that time of the year again, a time when light is more scarce and darkness is abundant. Seasonal Affective Disorder, SAD for short, affects from 1.4 percent (in Florida) to 9.7 (in New Hampshire) this time of year, according to epidemiological studies. There are obvious similarities between the behavior seen in humans during the winter months and other mammals. In mammals during the dark months, burrowing, sluggishness, and excessive sleep is common. These traits contribute to the survival of mammals during the winter months. Many scientists theorize that SAD may be related to innate survival traits similarly found in humans. Exposure to industrial light may be a factor that reduces the prevalence of SAD. Additionally, artificial light in the morning may help to reduce nocturnal melatonin secretion, which contributes to SAD. The following is an excerpt of an article from the New York Times that discusses issues surrounding SAD:

In 2001, Dr. Thomas A. Wehr and Dr. Norman E. Rosenthal, psychiatrists at the National Institute of Mental Health, ran an intriguing experiment. They studied two patient groups for 24 hours in winter and summer, one group with seasonal depression and one without.

A major biological signal tracking seasonal sunlight changes is melatonin, a brain chemical turned on by darkness and off by light. Dr. Wehr and Dr. Rosenthal found that the patients with seasonal depression had a longer duration of nocturnal melatonin secretion in the winter than in the summer, just as with other mammals with seasonal behavior.

Why did the normal patients show no seasonal change in melatonin secretion? One possibility is exposure to industrial light, which can suppress melatonin. Perhaps by keeping artificial light constant during the year, we can suppress the “natural” variation in melatonin experienced by SAD patients.

There might have been a survival advantage, a few hundred thousand years back, to slowing down and conserving energy — sleeping and eating more — in winter. Could people with seasonal depression be the unlucky descendants of those well-adapted hominids?

Regardless, no one with SAD has to wait for spring and summer to feel better. “Bright light in the early morning is a powerful, fast and effective treatment for seasonal depression,” said Dr. Rosenthal, now a professor of clinical psychiatry at the Georgetown Medical School and author of “Winter Blues” (Guilford, 1998). “Light is a nutrient of sorts for these patients.

Click here to read the entire article from the New York Times

Click here for information on the treatment of depression

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Rolf B. Gainer, Ph.D., Diplomate ABDA, is the Chief Executive Office at Brookhaven Hospital and the Vice President of Rehabilitation Institutes of America. Dr. Gainer has been involved in the design and operation of treatment programs since 1977.

Stephen Harnish, MD is the Medical Director of Brookhaven Hospital. Dr. Harnish is a member of the American Psychiatric Association and is well known in Oklahoma for his informative radio and television appearances.

Aric Thorpe, MHR, is Brookhaven Hospital's Pastoral Liaison Representative. He conducts the quarterly Minister's Lifeline series and provides mental health information to pastors and clergy.

Sarah McGee, BA, serves as the Community Education Provider for Brookhaven Hospital. She provides information on mental health and drug and alcohol treatment to healthcare professionals in Oklahoma and surrounding states.

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