Seasonal Affective Disorder
It has long been known that light plays an important role in the regulating of a person's mood - especially in the northern hemisphere. If you live in a temperate country, you may experience winter depression.
It has also been known for many years that the amount of obtainable light is the determining factor for the emergence of a variety of the typical depression. In the 1980s this rather different form of depression was given a name, "winter depression", which in English is called Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD).
Winter depression hits mainly women (80%) and starts early in life. The more towards the north you live the greater the risk is for developing winter depressions.
Symptoms
If you are susceptible to developing winter depression, you will begin to feel some of the symptoms around the autumn months:
- You will feel down and be in a bad mood.
- You will get tired more quickly and have less energy than during the summer months.
- Your sleep requirement will increase.
- Your appetite increases and you also have an urge to eat a large amount of carbohydrates (bread, pasta, rice, fruit etc. ) - and especially sweet foods.
If you are not treated for your winter depression (for example if you don't realize what is wrong with you), these symptoms will continue until the spring months, when more light is gradually returning. This means that mentally and socially you will function below your optimal level for several months.
It is therefore important that you go to see your doctor if you have had some of these symptoms for a couple of weeks.
The doctor will rule out any other reasons for your tiredness and other symptoms, and he will then start the appropriate treatment. The treatment will differ depending on whether you are suffering from winter depression or "normal" depression. It is therefore important to distinguish between these two forms of depression.
Light treatment
Medicinal treatment of winter depression has been attempted but contrary to the treatment of ordinary depression, the results have not been convincing. There is however another very effective treatment especially for winter depression: light treatment.
Light treatment is done with a special lamp, which shines with a powerful white, full-spectered light. The luminous intensity in such a lamp must be at least 2500 lux. The more powerful the light is, the less time you need to spend in front of the lamp. If you for example buy a lamp with 2500 lux, you need to sit in front of it for two hours to get the optimal effect. If the lamp has a luminous intensity of 5000 lux, you only need to sit in front of the lamp for one hour.
These lamps are easy to transport and can be bought from, amongst other places,
Treatment at home
The treatment therefore takes place in your own home:
- You need to sit comfortably with the lamp positioned approximately half a meter from the chair.
- You typically need between half and hour and two hours at a time depending of the intensity of the lamp.
- The treatment should preferably be given before 10 am or after 6 pm.
- You must not wear sunglasses while you are sitting in front of it.
- You can read, write, talk on the phone, knit or do other things while you are sitting in front of the lamp. But you need to look into the lamp for a brief moment approximately once a minute.
You typically need to use the lamp for 2 weeks. If you start to feel bad again during the course of the autumn/winter, you can start using the lamp again in this way.
There are no risks associated with using artificial light for the treatment of winter depression.