of winter and summer SAD appear to be different. They both are marked by sad mood and reduced feelings of pleasure, but winter depression patients tend to oversleep, overeat and feel sluggish, Rosenthal said. “The summer ones were in many ways the opposite,” he said. “Not that hungry, less appetite, insomnia.”Summer depression is also a more agitated depression, where patients tend toin the late spring and early summer, but dips in the winter.
This may be because depression patients who feel suicidal during the winter may not have the energy to carry out the plan, said Rosenthal, whose upcoming book, “,” aims to provide an up-to-date and concise understanding of SAD and practical strategies to counter it. People with summer depression who are both sad and agitated, however, unfortunately may have more energy to harm themselves.
Summer SAD is more heterogenous and varied in nature, which has also made it more difficult for researchers to study. Compared with winter SAD, which affectsthere has not been as much research on summer seasonal affective disorder in the decades since Rosenthal and his colleagues first described it.of 2,819 Danish subjects, about 0.1 percent met the criteria for summer SAD.
Summer sadness, though seemingly rarer than winter depression, should be acknowledged and treated by medical professionals, experts said., professor of psychological science at the University of Vermont. “It is a real thing.”The distinct environmental features of summer — heat, humidity and pollen — are believed to be the causes of summer depression., Rosenthal and his colleagues surveyed people asking what they attributed their summer sadness to.
“They say constant heat, or I can't stand the light,” Rosenthal said. “I've had people say that the light kind of cuts through me like a knife, I can't stand it. And bright light actually can predispose to mania.”These different factors may account for the mixed symptoms people with summer depression feel; the heat and humidity are unpleasant, while the light of the summer sun may be activating in a negative way.