Recent systematic review s have shown that  light therapy  is an efficacious and well-tolerated treatment for SAD .
There is also evidence for efficacy of pharmacotherapy to treat and prevent SAD .
SAD is a common condition with significant psychosocial impairment .
BACKGROUND Seasonal affective disorder ( SAD ) consists of recurrent major depressive episodes in the fall/winter with remissions in spring/summer .
RESULTS A careful history is important to make the diagnosis and differentiate SAD from other similar conditions such as subsyndromal SAD and atypical depression .
Seasonal patterns with winter worsening are also recognized in " nonseasonal " depression as well as many other psychiatric conditions , and comorbidity with SAD is common .
The pathophysiology of SAD seems to be heterogeneous as research on circadian , neurotransmitter function and genetic hypotheses have shown discrepant results .
A dual vulnerability model with differential loading on separate seasonal and depression factors has been proposed to explain these findings .
Moclobemide and fluoxetine in treatment of seasonal affective disorder.
Of a total of 581 consecutive depressed subjects attending psychiatric services of 6 centres in Finl and , 183 patients were eligible and completed a 6-week r and omised double-blind trial with either moclobemide or fluoxetine . Of these , 32 ( 17.5 % ) patients met the DSM-III-R criteria for mood disorder with a seasonal ( winter ) pattern and 19 patients ( 10.5 % ) met the original criteria for seasonal affective disorder ( SAD ) . There were no significant difference in the antidepressive response to the treatment between the patients with SAD and other depressive disorder . The treatment of 6 weeks with either moclobemide ( 300 - 450 mg daily ) or fluoxetine ( 20 - 40 mg daily ) result ed in a full remission in 15 ( 52 % ) patients with SAD and in 44 ( 37 % ) patients with other depressive disorder . Altogether , 23 ( 79 % ) and 83 ( 70 % ) patients , respectively , got significant benefit from the treatment . The improvement in the health-related quality of life in terms of ability to work was significantly more extensive in the patients with SAD assigned to receive moclobemide compared with the other depressive patients allocated to the same medication . Subjects who in addition met the operational criteria for atypical depression were equally distributed into the SAD and other depressive patient groups
Recent systematic review s have shown that  light therapy  is an efficacious and well-tolerated treatment for SAD .
There is also evidence for efficacy of pharmacotherapy to treat and prevent SAD .
SAD is a common condition with significant psychosocial impairment .
BACKGROUND Seasonal affective disorder ( SAD ) consists of recurrent major depressive episodes in the fall/winter with remissions in spring/summer .
RESULTS A careful history is important to make the diagnosis and differentiate SAD from other similar conditions such as subsyndromal SAD and atypical depression .
Seasonal patterns with winter worsening are also recognized in " nonseasonal " depression as well as many other psychiatric conditions , and comorbidity with SAD is common .
The pathophysiology of SAD seems to be heterogeneous as research on circadian , neurotransmitter function and genetic hypotheses have shown discrepant results .
A dual vulnerability model with differential loading on separate seasonal and depression factors has been proposed to explain these findings .