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takyon [soylentnews.org] writes:

According to another recent study, there is no evidence to support the existence [psychologicalscience.org] of seasonal affective disorder [wikipedia.org] (SAD):

A large-scale survey of U.S. adults provides no evidence that levels of depressive symptoms vary from season to season, according to new research [sagepub.com] [DOI: 10.1177/2167702615615867] published in Clinical Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science [psychologicalscience.org]. The findings are inconsistent with the notion of seasonal depression as a commonly occurring disorder.

"In conversations with colleagues, the belief in the association of seasonal changes with depression is more-or-less taken as a given and the same belief is widespread in our culture," says Steven LoBello, a professor of psychology at Auburn University at Montgomery and senior author on the new study.

"We analyzed the data from many angles and found that the prevalence of depression is very stable across different latitudes, seasons of the year, and sunlight exposures."

Based on emerging research investigating seasonal affective disorder (SAD), a "seasonal pattern" modifier for depression diagnoses was officially added to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) in 1987. To receive a diagnosis of depression with seasonal variation, patients must meet the diagnostic criteria for major depression and also experience recurring depressive episodes that coincide with specific seasons – in most cases, patients report an increase of symptoms in the fall and winter and a decrease in symptoms in spring and summer. But more recent studies have challenged the validity of earlier SAD research, including the fact that SAD is typically identified by asking patients to recall past depressive episodes over the course of the previous year or more. Furthermore, the criteria used to identify SAD do not align with the established criteria for major depression.

You don't need more lumens [soylentnews.org].

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