Buy essay on Winter depression

The discovery of Seasonal Affective Disorder, known as SAD, dates to the 80s years of the twentieth century. Certainly, this problem has existed for years, however, it is only during the last several decades that the scientists have started to regard it as a form of depression and consequently as a disease that needs treatment (Rosenthal, 2006).
According to the scientific researches, 90 percent of people living in the northern hemisphere, about thirty-nine degrees north, claim having changes in mood and health during winter months (Rosenthal, 2006, p.51). Seasonal affective disorders include unhealthy reaction to the change of seasons both in winter and in summer. However, winter depressions are far more widespread. The liability to winter blues depends on the person and his/her health. Different people might react to the change of seasons and weather in different ways. For some people these are slight worsening of mood and a bit more fatigue which they can easily overcome, for others this might be a real depression with all the clinic symptoms.
Due to the very recent consideration of winter blues, it is necessary to focus people’s attention on this problem and to explain people the necessity of treating this kind of depression and what is more important that it is possible to cure winter blues. As far as many people consider their lack of energy and sleepiness in winter the result of tiredness, it is important to give the information that winter blues are a problem that shouldn’t be ignored, especially taking into account that the measures are rather easy.
Today scientists cannot name with confidence the exact causes of winter depression. Nevertheless the researches show that the most likely reasons for winter depression are the change of weather, in particular the reduction of light amount, and the heredity (Smyth, 1992). The theory that the amount of light influences the mood of a person is supported by the positive effect of the light treatment. Still, the causes of SAD are discussed. One of theories is based on the suggestion that SAD is caused by the lack of serotonin. According to the experiments held on mice, animals that could not turn serotonin into N-acetylserotonin, showed signs of depressed behavior, which improved after the use of antidepressants which increased the amount of serotonin (Sher, Matthews, Turner & Postolache, 2001). There is also a theory that SAD is caused by lack of melatonin, which is produced by the pineal gland, and the change of the amount of light entails different amount of melatonin.
It is known that winter blues mostly affect women, especially from 20 to 40 years old, in other words in their reproductive period. Again nothing can be said for sure but one of the theories supporting the relationship between the winter blues and the gender is “the cyclical secretion of the female sex hormones, estrogen and progesterone”. (Rosenthal, 2006, p. 62).
Another evident cause of SAD is lack of the light. The farther from the equator people live the more liable to winter depression they are. Everybody knows that after the summer solstice the amount of daylight begins to decrease, autumn and winter bring us cloudiness and precipitations while sunshine is a rare guest. Light deprivation becomes the cause of SAD not only on the country scale but simply while moving to a less bright apartment.