January 6, 2006

SAD season: If your gloomy mood matches the wintry skies, several approaches can help

A little grouchy, aren\'t we? Perhaps you feel sluggish, less creative or withdrawn. Maybe you\'re eating more than usual. Join the club, the one with 14 million Americans who live with Seasonal Affective Disorder, or SAD. A type of depression, SAD and its milder form, the winter blues, are caused by shortened exposure to daylight. Symptoms begin in the fall, as daylight hours dwindle. Five or six months later, the blues are gone with the snow, only to return the next fall. Sorry to report, folks, but SAD\'s peak season starts in five days and runs through all of February, according to the American Psychiatric Association. Anti-depressants like Prozac work in 50 percent to 60 percent of people, and light therapy is effective in as many as 70 percent of patients, says Dr. Alireza Amirsadri, a psychiatrist and SAD specialist at Wayne State University School of Medicine and Detroit Receiving Hospital .

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