Treatment can help relieve the depression, lack of energy, carbohydrate craving and weight gain of Seasonal Affective Disorder. If your symptoms significantly affect your daily living, talk to your doctor about what might help you. Light therapy, psychotherapy, life changes and medications can be effective.
Light therapy
Like many animals, humans are hard-wired to be active during daylight and to shut down at night. But modern environments made up of dim, windowless workplaces and houses lamp-lit by evening disturb our ancestral circadian rhythms.
Light therapy may influence the three key neurotransmitters serotonin, dopamine and norepinephrine, says Rosenthal. Here's how light therapy works.
Medications
The antidepressant Wellbutrin XL (bupropion HCL) is approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) as a treatment of Seasonal Affective Disorder. Doctors sometimes prescribe fluoxetine (Prozac), d-fenfluramine (a serotonin-releasing drug shown to suppress carbohydrate craving), moclobemide (an MAO antidepressant), tranylcypromine (Parnate), and other medications to relieve symptoms.
Propranolol/melatonin: A recent study found that SAD sufferers who took a low dose of the light-sensitive hormone melatonin more than doubled their improvement in depression scores.
Medication may be combined with light therapy, which may make it possible to take smaller doses of medication.
Psychotherapy
Stress can increase Seasonal Affective Disorder symptoms, making stress management important, especially during the winter months. Psychotherapy can help, especially cognitive therapy.
Lifestyle
Regular aerobic exercise can also help improve mood. It's even more effective if done outdoors or in front of a light box. Exercise and diet can also help to control the weight gain common in Seasonal Affective Disorder. A support group for people with mood disorders can offer support, friendship and strategies that others have found useful. (Contact your local chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) or Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance -(DBSA). And anyone who is feeling depressed should remember to put pleasurable activities on their priority list to lift their mood.
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 Some Seasonal Affective Disorder sufferers decide to relocate to a place with a sunnier climate, but even a winter vacation in a sunlit spot can help a sufferer make it through the dark season.
Editor's note: Seasonal Affective disorder is sometimes referred to as SAD. If you do your own research on Seasonal Affective Disorder online, be aware that SAD is also used to identify Social Anxiety Disorder.
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Sources:
Winter Blues, Revised Edition: Everything You Need to Know to Beat Seasonal Affective Disorder, Norman E. Rosenthal, M.D. The Guilford Press 2002
American Psychiatric Association
U.S. National Institutes of Health
U.S. Food and Drug Administration
Swedish Medical Center, Seattle WA
Mayo Clinic
Light therapy photo courtesy Enviro-Med. Enviro-Med designs, manufactures and markets Bio-Lights, used in research centers, hospitals and homes worldwide for the treatment of Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD).
Page updated October 1, 2009 |
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