Seasonal Affective Disorders

Seasonal Affective Disorders

It is rather common for a child's behavior to change due to the weather or season. Scientists have been researching this change of behavior in children for some time. Research has found that this variation happens primarily in two of the seasons out of the year. Other discoveries include both the symptoms of this disorder and some treatment options to aid in controlling it. The scientists have termed this condition as "seasonal affective disorder". This is a very common occurrence in Alaska, the only region of the United States of America with latitude of over sixty degrees north.

Seasonal affective disorder or SAD, as it is referred to, is a pattern of major depressive episodes that occur and remit with changes in the seasons.1 The two types of seasonal patterns that have been identified are the fall-onset type called winter depression; and the spring-onset type called summer depression. Winter depression is the more common of the two disorders, which begins in the late fall to early winter months and diminishes during the summer months.

Children who suffer from the disorder SAD have certain symptoms that separate them from the regular depression that is common among the general population. Almost all the children with SAD suffer from one or more of the following symptoms during the winter months: sadness; anxiety; and irritability. Some will show symptoms such as: fatigue, sleeping problems, increase in appetite, headaches, and carbohydrate or junk food cravings. There are also signs that can show problems occurring at school. These symptoms are decline in academic achievements, loss of desire to take part in activities, memory impairment, poor organization skills, and difficulty...

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...ut that the active treatment helped the majority. It shows that 71% of the twenty-eight subjects had at least a 50% decrease in symptoms, while the 25%had some decrease of symptoms. When asked, the children felt the best during treatment, 80% said during the active treatment. There have been many studies given to show the effectiveness of light therapy and how well it can work.

The change of seasons is one way in which environment has an effect on human behavior. Many people feel better and act better when it is a nice day out, when the sun is shinning, especially kids. In most cases, children have more energy in the summer than in the winter. "Seasonal Affective Disorder," affects many people, but researchers still do not know everything about this disorder, but they are finding ways to make life for the people affected by this disorder a little better.