We know about the effects of long winters and dark days on human psychology. Is there SAD in reverse ? What treatment do people get when depressed in summer,lose their energy, cannot take the heat even warm weathers and sunshine (other than photo-phobia in general)and rather want to hibernate when spring comes until fall ? (like me!)
Perhaps you will find some hints here:
1: Mirabile CS Jr, Teicher MH. Hand preference and spring-summer vs fall-winter
seasonal affective disorder. Percept Mot Skills. 2002 Dec;95(3 Pt 1):887-8.
2: Lingjaerde O, Regine Føreland A. Characteristics of patients with otherwise
typical winter depression, but with incomplete summer remission. J Affect Disord.
1999 Apr;53(1):91-4.
3: Fernandes P, Avasthi A, Santosh PJ. Familial reverse seasonal affective
disorder - a case report. Indian J Psychiatry. 1996 Oct;38(4):257-9.
4: Palinkas LA, Cravalho M, Browner D. Seasonal variation of depressive symptoms
in Antarctica. Acta Psychiatr Scand. 1995 Jun;91(6):423-9.
5: Wehr TA, Giesen HA, Schulz PM, Anderson JL, Joseph-Vanderpool JR, Kelly K,
Kasper S, Rosenthal NE. Contrasts between symptoms of summer depression and winter depression. J Affect Disord. 1991 Dec;23(4):173-83.
6: Wehr TA, Rosenthal NE. Seasonality and affective illness. Am J Psychiatry.
1989 Jul;146(7):829-39. Review.
7: Wehr TA, Sack DA, Rosenthal NE. Seasonal affective disorder with summer
depression and winter hypomania. Am J Psychiatry. 1987 Dec;144(12):1602-3.
You might consider correlations with allergies/allergens and treatments for these as an important factor. Several disorders (and suicide) have maxima in the Spring associated with allergens; perhaps these atypical cases of SAD are sensitive to a different set of allergens, which peak in the Summer?
Thank you Michael and Christopher:
Especially the allergy aspect Christopher is mentioning here seems might be indeed the culprit in many cases. It would be interesting to know the summer aversion without any obvious 'rhyme and reason". Many thanks for your suggested literature Michael.
In addition to the allergy issue, some people have experienced loss or trauma that they associate with particular seasons, and the recurrence of these seasons may trigger depression. Also, particularly in latitudes where nights are short in the summer and daylight is extremely prolonged, some people have summer sleep disturbances taht can result in depression-like symptoms.
- Badges
- Science topic
- Similar topics
- Psychology