This Article  • Full text  • PDF  • Reply to article  • Send to a friend  • Save in My Folder  • Save to citation manager  • Permissions  Citing Articles  • Citation map  • Citing articles on HighWire  • Contact me when this article is cited  Related Content  • Similar articles in this journal  Topic Collections  • Chronobiology Disorders  • Psychiatry, Other  • Alert me on articles by topic  Social Bookmarking   What's this?

Arch Gen Psychiatry. 2001;58:1115-1116.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text and any section headings.

IF WE KNEW the physiological cue for the annual change that triggers winter depression, the syndrome of seasonal affective disorder (SAD) would be validated, and there would be a rational basis for designing therapeutic interventions. The depressogenic effect of long winter nights coupled with the antidepressant effect of morning light therapy make for a plausible story line. In this issue of the ARCHIVES, Wehr et al¹ at the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) report that the melatonin secretion profile, an internal correlate of night length controlled by the hypothalamic biological clock, is linked to emergence and remission of the depression. By aggregating the largest sample size ever for such a study (55 patients and matched controls), they are able to derive virtually noise-free melatonin curves with a set of discrete anchor points: secretion onset and offset as well as final daytime clearance of the hormone from blood circulation.

ABSOLUTE NIGHT LENGTH VS SEASONAL CHANGE
Patients . . . [Full Text of this Article]

LIGHT THERAPY VS NATURAL LIGHT

LARKS VS OWLS


CiteULike    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter     What's this?

THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES

Issues for DSM-V: Seasonal Affective Disorder and Seasonality
Rosenthal
Am. J. Psychiatry 2009;166:852-853.
FULL TEXT