Talk:Seasonal affective disorder

Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment
This article was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment, between 25 August 2020 and 4 December 2020. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): Paigepotvin.

Above undated message substituted from Template:Dashboard.wikiedu.org assignment by PrimeBOT (talk) 08:50, 17 January 2022 (UTC)

NPOV dispute Role of occupational therapy in treating SAD
Most of the therapies under the section "Role of occupational therapy in treating SAD " are not specific to occupational therapy. Many of them would be better placed under general treatment and discussed as falling under the scope of those professions who would carry out or prescribe the treatment. Counsellors would be more likely than OT to do all the psychological approaches to sad listed under this section. Outdoor therapy, pharmacotherapy, and light therapy would most likely be prescribed by a psychiatrist or a primary care physician. This currently reads like a sales pitch for OT. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 66.194.68.226 (talk) 21:22, 3 June 2013 (UTC)

The discussion on OTs is also longer than all of the other segments of the article combined including pathophysiology and diagnosis. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.121.178.228 (talk) 04:17, 4 June 2013 (UTC)


 * You're right. The section on OT is indeed odd and should be fixed. I wouldn't have the time to do it, but wanted to voice my support for this change. Of course, you're free to edit the article yourself. Be sure to look at the sources and adhere to what they say. TimidGuy (talk) 09:50, 4 June 2013 (UTC)


 * I posted a notice at Wikiproject Medicine regarding the issue you raised. Wikipedia Administrator Doc James explained that this section was a class project. Instead of integrating material into the section on general treatment, as you suggested, he moved the material to a new article: Occupational therapy in the management of seasonal affective disorder, presumably in order to retain the work of these students. Treatments mentioned in the new article that aren't included here could be added to this article. If I have time, I may take a look at that. You're also free to adapt some of the content of that article into this one. I also tried to fix some of the issues with the non-encyclopedic tone in the new article, but more needs to be done. TimidGuy (talk) 10:59, 11 June 2013 (UTC)

Scandinavian names
I remember this affection has some local names. Is it so? --93.147.30.191 (talk) 10:59, 12 December 2013 (UTC)

Original research?
"Fish are high in vitamin D. Fish also contain docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), which help with a variety of neurological dysfunctions." These statements are easily verifiable, and indeed a reference is included in the article. But there does not seem to be a source listed for the implication that vitamin D and DHA may explain the lack of SAD in Iceland and Japan. I've added an tag for this reason. Mr. Granger (talk) 20:11, 13 January 2014 (UTC)
 * And then you removed it altogether, which makes the paragraph useless.. Bataaf van Oranje (Prinsgezinde) (talk) 05:46, 18 September 2017 (UTC)

Blue light therapy
Since blue light therapy is becoming more popular, it would be nice if we had a little about the theory behind it. Blue light stimulates the ipRGCs (Intrinsically photosensitive retinal ganglion cells). We have about 3000 of them in each retina. They carry a light-sensitive molecule called melanopsin with peak sensitivity at 480 nm (roughly sky blue). The ipRGCs also receive input from rod and cone cells (through interneurons), so that the response curve is complex and non-linear. However, anything in the 460-480 nm range seems to work, so long as it's reasonably bright and of long duration (100 seconds or more). Effectiveness is measured by taking blood draws before and after. What is measured is serum melatonin levels. Melatonin builds up in our system in the evening and makes people feel sleepy. That's why you're supposed to avoid blue light in the last hour before you go to sleep. In the morning blue light stimulates melatonin suppression, which is supposed to wake you up.

SAD is thought to be caused by some sort of disruption in the biological clock, which is why light therapy is supposed to help. The problem with fluorescent lights is that they produce very little in the blue range, just red, green, and violet. That might explain why daylight and sunlight are more effective. Meanwhile, the blue light hazard peaks at about 440 nm, but is still moderately high at 460 nm. That's why 480 nm (peak) would probably be safer. Since LEDs are usually marketed in terms of dominant wavelength that would come out to about 490 nm dominant, which is widely available and cheap. (That wavelength is popular for cheap automobile accessories, used by young people to trick out or "pimp" their automobiles. If you search Google Images on "ice blue" "led" and "lights" you'll see what 480peak/490dominant looks like.) Zyxwv99 (talk) 23:59, 8 November 2015 (UTC)

Definition and Causes
I am interested in changing the description of the disorder from "depressive symptoms in the winter or summer", to “depressive symptoms at the same time each year”. This is because SAD, although most common in the winter, can arise at different times depending on the individual, although it must be consistent with a specific time of year to be considered seasonal. For example, some people may start experiencing symptoms in the early fall.

I also am interested in including a sentence on the social factors perspective in the Cause section, as well as research on predisposition to SAD based on personality traits, from an academic journal article titled "Chronotype And Personality Factors Of Predisposition To Seasonal Affective Disorder" that describes a correlation. LilyC414 (talk) 15:51, 18 April 2016 (UTC)

Added animation
Animation about light entering eyes and signal pathway. Let me know if you want anything added or changed. Feedback welcome. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Tommy animator (talk • contribs) 22:12, 29 July 2016 (UTC)

Controversy
The lead cited one article disputing SAD: "The validity of SAD has been questioned by a 2016 analysis by the Center for Disease Control, in which no links were detected between depression and seasonality or sunlight exposure." I removed it because it was giving undue weight to a fringe view. Furthermore, that study has received a number of replies in the literature:  Therefore, a summary of the replies should be written before the paragraph is restored. fgnievinski (talk) 03:26, 5 January 2018 (UTC)

I restored it because the view that SAD may not exist is not a fringe-theory by Wikipedia's standards. Fringe theories are pseudoscientific or based on unreliable sources, whereas the hypothesis that SAD does not exist is scientific and supported by credible data. It is also a well-known hypothesis, because when the CDC study came out, dozens of mainstream outlets like Scientific American reported on it. Given this notability, having a single sentence does not give undue weight to the hypothesis. On the other hand, removing references to the study is suppressing relevant information. If you think there needs to be more context given to the results of the study, then provide that context, but we should not suppress information from credible studies that were reported by many mainstream news outlets.

External links modified (January 2018)
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 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20090615153220/http://www.practicalsolar.com/applications.html to http://www.practicalsolar.com/applications.html
 * Added tag to http://www.newyorkhousemagazine.com/pages/full_story?page_label=home_main_top&id=2631630&widget=push&instance=home_green_future&article-Grab%20the%20Sun%20With%20Heliostats%20=&open=&
 * Added archive https://www.webcitation.org/5sSzQgPfj?url=http://day-lights.com/light-therapy-news/downloads/can-sad-study-wp.pdf to http://day-lights.com/light-therapy-news/downloads/can-sad-study-wp.pdf
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20110810084450/http://www.britebox.co.uk/sad-study.php?page=latitude to http://www.britebox.co.uk/sad-study.php?page=latitude
 * Added tag to http://www.elsevier.nl/web/10165/Stijl/Gezondheid-Gezin/Gezin/Donkere-dagen-Winterdepressie-verklaard.htm/

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Nice name.
“SAD affects approximately 8% of individuals in the United States” SantacruiserMcWiki (talk) 23:21, 6 December 2018 (UTC)

Negative Ion and Pseudoscience
The bizarre psuedoscientific image posted without context on the page, and the regular mention of negative ion therapy, in addition to the previous discussions of this topic, makes me suspect that negative ion therapy is being pushed more than justified. As far as I can tell from the citations it is all researched by a single guy, and ion type therapies are extremely common scams.

I'm not a regular Wikipedia user but I would recommend that the image be removed, and that someone competent do a review of all the data, and summarise it to the best of our knowledge, and decide how much is pseudoscience and how prominent (if at all) a position negative ion therapy deserves. 118.209.192.158 (talk) 00:44, 2 May 2019 (UTC)

Article bloat with city listing
, what are you doing? I just removed that massive wall-o-data that is only a tangent for this article subject. Images of the city skylines? Really? That chart was over 75K. We don't need that kind of bloating. What is the relevance? — Berean Hunter   (talk)  02:00, 8 December 2019 (UTC)

Wiki Education assignment: English 111 First-Semester College Composition
— Assignment last updated by Lincol7 (talk) 21:30, 4 December 2023 (UTC)