Pat Hansen felt stuck in quicksand, buried in her bed. She didn't want to get up. She didn't want to go out. She just wanted winter to be over.
"If there's a month of cloudy days in June, I'll have that same thing," said Hansen, 51. "It's not like it incapacitates me. It's just like, if you left me alone and I had nothing to do, I would probably sleep 16 hours."
Hansen was diagnosed five years ago with seasonal affective disorder, a mood disorder thought to be directly related to the absence of sunlight. Sufferers show symptoms of depression, such as excessive sleeping and overeating, in conditions of sustained reduced sunlight (typically, winter). Generally, as the hours of daylight increase, the symptoms subside.
"People don't exactly know why it happens," said Dr. Michael Weissberg, psychiatry professor at the University of Colorado at Denver Health Science Center. "They know when it happens."
The disorder has been linked to melatonin, a sleep-inducing hormone that increases with darkness. SAD has also been attributed to a disruption of the circadian rhythm - a daily physiological cycle our bodies tend to align with the sun.
Though there is no distinct type of person that suffers from SAD, the disorder is more common in women and believed to be genetic, said Gene Bruno, natural health educator and dean of academics at the Huntington College of Health Sciences, a distance-learning college. Bruno has been studying SAD for more than 20 years.
An estimated six of every 100 persons in the United States have SAD, with 10 percent to 20 percent suffering from a mild form, according to the American Academy of Family Physicians. The incidence of SAD increases with higher latitudes.
"Apparently, there's a lot of people out there who don't know about it," Bruno said. "They just know they get depressed in the winter."
Pikes Peak (Colo.) Mental Health psychologist Jennifer DeGroff said diagnosis is often difficult because many who suffer from SAD are also afflicted with another mood disorder, such as bipolar disorder or depression. Though DeGroff says SAD isn't found in someone without another mental illness, Weissberg disagrees.
"True seasonal affective disorder is you just get depressed in the winter," Weissberg said.
Those who believe they might be suffering from SAD are encouraged to contact a mental health professional for an evaluation.
Treatment of the disorder varies. Traditional treatments for depression - medication and behavioral therapy - are common, but alternative treatments, such as light therapy, have gained popularity.
Full-spectrum light is believed to help the body reduce the secretion of melatonin. Patients sit in front of a special light, which costs $100 to $400, for two to four hours a day. Studies are being conducted to look at the scientific effectiveness.
Bruno has also found that tryptophan supplements can produce the same effect.
A combination of medication and full-spectrum lighting has helped Hansen keep her mood consistent through winter, but she admits a lot of her treatment is self-motivated: she forces herself to get up.
"It would be so tempting not to get up and not to do anything," she said. "Once I get moving and start doing stuff, then I'm fine."
http://www.newbernsj.com/articles/sad_43656___article.html/disorder_winter.html
