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Prevalence of seasonal depression in a prospective cohort study.
Journal article

Prevalence of seasonal depression in a prospective cohort study.

  • Wirz-Justice A Centre for Chronobiology, Psychiatric Clinics, University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland.
  • Ajdacic V Department of Psychiatry, Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics, Psychiatric Hospital, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.
  • Rössler W Department of Psychiatry, Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics, Psychiatric Hospital, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.
  • Steinhausen HC Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.
  • Angst J Department of Psychiatry, Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics, Psychiatric Hospital, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland. jules.angst@uzh.ch.
  • 2018-07-20
Published in:
  • European archives of psychiatry and clinical neuroscience. - 2019
Affective disorders
Comorbid disorders
Seasonality
Zürich longitudinal cohort study
Adult
Agoraphobia
Comorbidity
Databases, Factual
Depressive Disorder, Major
Female
Humans
Interview, Psychological
Longitudinal Studies
Male
Middle Aged
Phobia, Social
Seasonal Affective Disorder
Switzerland
Young Adult
English The prevalence of autumn/winter seasonality in depression has been documented in the longitudinal Zurich cohort study by five comprehensive diagnostic interviews at intervals over more than 20 years (N = 499). Repeated winter major depressive episodes (MDE-unipolar + bipolar) showed a prevalence of 3.44% (5× more women than men), whereas MDE with a single winter episode was much higher (9.96%). A total of 7.52% suffered from autumn/winter seasonality in major and minor depressive mood states. The clinical interviews revealed novel findings: high comorbidity of Social Anxiety Disorder and Agoraphobia within the repeated seasonal MDE group, high incidence of classic diurnal variation of mood (with evening improvement), as well as a high rate of oversensitivity to light, noise, or smell. Nearly twice as many of these individuals as in the other MDE groups manifested the syndrome of atypical depression (DSM-V), which supports the prior description of seasonal affective disorder (SAD) as presenting primarily atypical symptoms (which include hypersomnia and increase in appetite and weight). This long-term database of regular structured interviews provides important confirmation of SAD as a valid diagnosis, predominantly found in women, and with atypical vegetative symptoms.
Language
  • English
Open access status
closed
Identifiers
Persistent URL
https://sonar.ch/global/documents/297357
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