Essays --

Seasonal affective disorder (SAD) is a psychological disorder that is described in the DSM-5 as a specifier to describe subpopulations of patients with recurrent depressive disorders and bipolar disorder. It is unique because unlike depression symptoms, seasonal affective disorder has variations in onset, intensity and remission following a temporal pattern (American Psychiatric, 2013). Seasonality is seasonal variation in behavior and mood and seasonal affective disorder describes the extreme end of seasonality. The most common form of this disorder is Winter SAD in which the depressive symptoms begin in the fall and winter and go into remission in the spring in summer but the opposite, Summer SAD where depressive symptoms begin in the spring and summer and go into remission in the fall and winter is also sometimes observed. In recent years, there has been more of a push to advocate getting help for seasonal affective disorder for those that need it. The treatment that is most often provided is bright light therapy. The cause of this disorder is generally considered to be lack of exposure to sunlight but there are many factors that have been found to contribute to the susceptibility to seasonal affective disorder, such as the latitudinal position, the activity level, gender and age, and the personality of a person. One of the most widely known and tested factors that affects susceptibility to seasonal affective disorder is latitudinal position. This factor was one of the first used in explaining seasonal affective disorder. As a person moves higher in latitude which means goes north, the amount of sunlight per day is significantly reduced, which can cause seasonal affective disorder to begin to arise. This lack of sunlight can c... ...light-latitude hypothesis of seasonal depression needs to be looked at again or more focus added to another possible factor that could contribute to SAD (Haggarty et al., 2001). In conclusion, though often looked over, seasonal affective disorder is a very serious disorder that is shown to be as severe as non-seasonal major depression. Both Winter SAD and Summer SAD can be debilitating for the patient who has them. The latitudinal position, the activity level, gender and age, and the personality of a person are all factors that can contribute to susceptibility to seasonal affective disorder or can help us in understanding and possibly even treating it. Aside from these factors, there is research going on even now looking into other possible factors that could contribute to the susceptibility to seasonal affective disorder as well as new treatments for the disorder.