SAD in the summer? Sunshine depression rare, but real

Article by Cari Nierenberg from http://bodyodd.nbcnews.com/

Many of us can hardly wait for summer to arrive, but a small number of people are much happier when it’s over. You’ve no doubt heard of Seasonal AffectiveDisorder, the wintertime mood disorder — but some get SAD in the summer.

As hot weather approaches, those with summer SAD sleep less, eat less, and lose weight. They’re extremely irritable and agitated. (It’s the reverse for people with winter SAD, who sleep more, gain weight and crave high-carb foods, and tend to slow down and socially hibernate from late fall to early spring.)

Summer-onset depression is thought to affect less than 1 percent of the population, making it much rarer than the winter variety experienced by an estimated 5 percent of people.

In its most severe form, people with summer seasonal depression may be more at risk for suicide than cold-weather SAD, says Dr. Norman Rosenthal, a clinical professor of psychiatry at Georgetown University Medical School, who has studied both types and first helped discover their existence. “Suicide is more of a concern when people are depressed and agitated rather than depressed and lethargic,” he explains.

When summer depression was first recognized in 1986, Rosenthal said that mental health professionals suspected the cause was the heat and humidity. That, he said, lent itself to the idea that a cold shower, air conditioning, swimming in cold lakes or heading North would relieve symptoms. Although these treatments for hot-weather depression are useful for some, they lack the staying power that light-box therapy has on winter SAD.

‘The light is cutting though me like a knife’
A person with summer SAD can stay inside, crank up the AC, and darken the room but then go outside into the heat and it’s as if they’ve never been treated, explains Rosenthal, the author of “Winter Blues.”

Another idea is that it might be the light itself that’s aggravating sufferers, whether it’s the intensity of sunlight or the angle it’s coming at people. One of Rosenthal’s summer depression patients describes it as “feeling like the light is cutting though me like a knife.”

Read more here:  http://bodyodd.nbcnews.com/_news/2011/07/01/6984639-sad-in-the-summer-sunshine-depression-rare-but-real?lite

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