Could We Cure Seasonal Affective Disorder?

There are jokes in many movies about the teacher who has a special lamp and will give you a pass if you tell him you have SAD or other people who try to make up something when it’s convenient and call it SAD. The name is even conducive for jokes. This said, the truth is that it’s hard to get people to accept depression of any kind. Its seasonal nature just makes SAD more complicated, especially when people can say that many of us feel happier in the summer than in the winter.

That’s where we find researchers from the University of Copenhagen. They conducted a recent study on brain scans to look at the science behind SAD, finding that people with SAD cannot control the happy hormone serotonin during winter. Didn’t we already know that?

As lead researcher Dr. Brenda McMahon explains it, The serotonin transporter (SERT) carries serotonin back into the nerve cells where it is not active – so the higher the SERT activity, the lower the activity of serotonin. Sunlight keeps this setting naturally low, but when the nights grow longer during the autumn, the SERT levels increase, resulting in diminishing active serotonin levels.

Researchers were able to look at 11 people with SAD compared to 23 people without SAD. They hope that with more understanding, we will also be able to achieve more hope for better cures. McMahon has found that We know that eating a balanced diet, cutting down on caffeine and getting some exercise can help as can spending as much time as possible outdoors because – even when it’s overcast, light will be higher than indoors.

The study is small, and there are no definitive results or cures. But it is a step in the right direction.