Seasonal affective dysfunction (SAD), aka seasonal melancholy, happens in areas that have decrease ranges of daylight throughout sure occasions of the 12 months.
In america, it’s most prevalent within the northern areas of the nation—i.e., Alaska, the Pacific Northwest, the Midwest, and the Northeast. The additional north you reside1 (i.e., the additional you might be from the equator), the extra vulnerable you might be.
In keeping with a 2015 article from Despair Analysis and Remedy, SAD is 4 occasions extra frequent in ladies than males and circumstances sometimes start between the ages of 18 and 30.
Whereas seasonal melancholy is a medical prognosis, a subsyndromal sort of SAD with milder signs known as S-SAD, or “the winter blues,” is extra frequent. For instance, 15% of the Canadian inhabitants and 20% of the U.Ok. inhabitants experiences the winter blues, whereas solely 2%-6% and a couple of% expertise SAD in Canada and the U.Ok., respectively.
