Am J Psychiatry 1993; 150:443-448
Copyright © 1993 by American Psychiatric Association
Depressive symptoms and family history in seasonal and nonseasonal mood disorders
JM Allen, RW Lam, RA Remick and AD Sadovnick
Department of Psychiatry, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada.
OBJECTIVE: The authors' goal was to compare the symptoms and family history
of seasonal affective disorder with those of nonseasonal mood disorders.
METHOD: From a subspecialty mood disorders clinic, 34 patients with major
depression, seasonal pattern (seasonal affective disorder), diagnosed with
DSM-III-R criteria, were matched in age, sex, and diagnostic subtype
(recurrent unipolar, bipolar I, or bipolar II) to 34 patients with
nonseasonal mood disorders. Data on symptoms during the most recent
depressive episode were obtained by chart review and compared by using
chi-square tests. Family history data for first- degree relatives of
patients with seasonal and nonseasonal mood disorders were gathered by
using the family history method, and diagnoses were based on Family History
Research Diagnostic Criteria. RESULTS: Patients with seasonal affective
disorder reported significantly more hypersomnia, hyperphagia, and weight
gain and reported less suicidal ideation and morning worsening of mood than
the patients with nonseasonal mood disorders. No differences were found in
family histories of mood disorders, other psychiatric disorders, and any
psychiatric disorder between the groups with seasonal versus nonseasonal
mood disorders. Alcoholism was found more frequently in the relatives of
the patients with seasonal affective disorder. CONCLUSIONS: Differences in
symptoms between seasonal and nonseasonal mood disorders provide some
support for seasonal affective disorder as a diagnostic subtype of mood
disorders. However, the genetic loading for mood disorders (of unspecified
seasonality), as determined by the family history method, is similar for
seasonal and nonseasonal mood disorders.
