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Some
And
Bright Lights
Help Alleviate
Perplexing Winter
Depression
By Mercer Cross
National Geographic
News Service
BETHESDA, Md. Dr. Nor
man E. Rosenthal, one of the
world’s leading authorities on sea
sonal depression, admits that he
himself suffers from the winter
blahs.
He copes with his problem the
same way his more severely
afflicted patients at the National
Institute of Mental Health do. For
several hours each winter day, he
works beside a bank of especially
bright fluorescent lights.
An unknown number of Ameri
cans - at least several hundred
thousand become depressed
enough to cease functioning nor
mally during the dark days of wint
er. Psychiatrist Rosenthal coined
the term now commonly used to
describe their trouble: seasonal
affective disorder, SAD for short.
Starting in the fall and continu
ing through the winter, SAD suf
ferers sink into depression. They
lose their ability to concentrate.
They overeat, oversleep, and gain
weight They become irritable and
squabble with their spouses and
associates. Their sex drive
diminishes.
Women are four times likelier
than men to have the seasonal
melancholia. Onset of the disorder
may come in childhood, but is
more likely to start in young adult
hood. Although darkness seems to
be the main cause, cold, snowy
weather may contribute.
Alcoholism and suicide go hand
in hand with SAD. “Lots of that
suicide probably 90 percent - is
alcohol-related,” says Dr. Aron S.
Wolf, a psychiatrist in Anchorage,
Alaska.
Come spring, as the days grow
longer, the symptoms start to fade.
By summer, the SAD victims are
normal again.
The farther north people live,
the more prevalent the syndrome
becomes. Swedes call it “Lapp
sickness,” for the isolated Laplan
ders who dwell above the Arctic
Circle. The Finnish word is
“kaamos.”
Whatever it’s called, seasonal
depression has been around as long
as recorded history. In about 400
8.C., Socrates said that
“melancholia occurs in the
spring.”
But not until the winter of
1981-82 did Rosenthal and his col-
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leagues conduct research that led
to development of the full
spectrum light panels, five to 10
times brighter than average indoor
lights.
Among American specialists,
the lights are the generally
accepted treatment for SAD suf
ferers. After a few days of sitting in
front of the lights for several hours,
most victims of extreme blahs perk
up significantly. When they cease
treatment for more than a few
days, their depression returns.
The specialists don’t agree on
the optimal daily time for using the
lights. Rosenthal says two hours;
other doctors say one; still others
say six. A minority of patients
don’t respond to the lights and
require other treatment, such as
antidepressants.
Doctors have yet to leant exact
ly what brings on SAD. One phys
iological possibility is that it is
related to hormones such as mela
tonin and prolactin and to seroto
nin, a chemical in the body. Bright
lights, according to one theory,
help to control these substances.
“The one thing I like to emphas
ize is that if somebody is genuinely
depressed, he or she would do very
well to have an expert treat the
problem,” Rosenthal says.
That advice doesn’t stop some
depressed people from circum
venting their doctors. “We send
lots of people to the lighting
supply store,” Wolf says of those
who reject professional help.
Although light therapy so far
has been used predominantly by
U.S. doctors, international cooper
ation may not be far away. Dr. Car
la Hellekson, a psychiatrist in Fair
banks, Alaska, says that Ameri
cans and Russians have reached
preliminary agreement on a joint
study by Alaskan and Siberian
specialists.
Among the many unanswered
questions, Dr. Hcllckson says, is
why Alaskan Eskimos arc less sus
ceptible than whites to SAD.
“Clearly they’ve adapted over
many centuries.” Wolf says, “If
you believe in the land-bridge
theory, the Eskimo people were
Siberians to begin with.”
Long Scandinavian winters cre
ate their share of depression. But
Dr. Eric Jannerfeldt, medical atta
che at the Swedish Embassy in
Washington, says that light treat
ment isn’t used in his country.
“Swedes tend to take advantage
of winter much more than you do
here,” he says. Part of the U.S.
problem, he suggests, may be the
prevalence of windowless offices.
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“That is quite unthinkable in Swe
den,” he says.
Some scientists have drawn a
correlation between SAD symp
toms and hibernating animals.
Rosenthal rejects the correlation.
“Zoologists scoff at the analogy
because it’s very superficial,” he
says. “The similarity is that both
the hibernating animal and a
patient with SAD are less active in
the winter. And that’s probably
where it stops.”
All the experts agree that much
remains to be learned about the
perplexing illness. Rosenthal and
his associates at the national insti
tute are doing research on reverse
SAD, which depresses some peo
ple in summer but sends them soar
ing in winter.
Doctors at the University of
Minnesota Hospitals in Minneapo
lis are investigating SAD’s effects
on children. At Brookside Hospital
in Nashua, N.H., researchers con
cerned about possible retinal dam
age from the full-spectrum lights
are studying the removal of ultra
violet light from the spectrum.
Rosenthal says he hopes that
eventually light therapy will go
beyond its present limited use and
“serve as a probe into our under
standing of brain function.”
to
Rigors of nearly interminable winters pose a challenge
for residents of northern latitudes, such as this man in Hel
sinki, Finland. The farther north people live, the more sus
ceptible they are to seasonal affective disorder, or SAD,
which afflicts millions worldwide. Finns call it “kaamos.”
Swedes call It “Lapp sickness.”
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