Seasonality and affective disorders: a report from North India

Abstract Case records of the patients with major affective disorders (ICD-10 criteria), seen over a 5 year period in a busy clinic in North India were examined for Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) as per DSM-III-R criteria. In addition, seasonality of episodes of all affective disorders was also studied. Around 5.67% of the cases ( n =44) retrospectively met the DSM-III-R criteria of SAD and predominant pattern was that of summer depression ( n =18). There was also a consistent pattern of seasonal mania either in conjunction with seasonal depression ( n =18) or in form of seasonal recurrent mania ( n =11). None of the cases of depression showed any atypical vegetative features. In cases not meeting criteria for SAD ( n =731), there was a trend for peaks for depressive episodes in winter followed by a smaller peak in summer months while manic episodes had peaks towards rainy and winter months. As compared to seasonal patterns of affective disorders in temperate zones, there was a general trend for opposite patterns of seasonality in SAD as well as in non-SAD. The findings are discussed in context of the climatic conditions of North India.