TAKE CARE –
Oct. 30, 2024 – Miriam Cherry poses for a photo in her home where she uses a light therapy device to treat seasonal affective disorder, in Larchmont, New York, on Sept. 4, 2024’ People with SAD typically have episodes of depression that begin in the fall and ease in the spring or summer. Changing the clocks back to standard time, which happens this weekend, can be a trigger for SAD. A milder form, subsyndromal SAD, is recognized by medical experts, and there’s also a summer variety of seasonal depression, though less is known about it.
In 1984, a team led by Dr. Norman Rosenthal, then a researcher at the National Institutes of Health, first described SAD and coined the term. “I believe that because it is easy to remember, the acronym has stuck,” he said.
What causes seasonal affective disorder?
Scientists are learning how specialized cells in our eyes turn the blue wavelength part of the light spectrum into neural signals affecting mood and alertness…
