How does seasonality affect bipolar disorder?
If you look across the general population, people might complain of differences in their mood and behaviors across the different seasons. Our study looked bipolar disorder patients and how they feel their moods and behaviors fluctuate across the changing seasons. And we found that they do experience significant difficulty. We measured their mood, sleep, social activity, weight, appetite and energy [over one year]. In our survey, bipolar disorder patients reported that these items would fluctuate according to the changing seasons. The spring and summer would be times when you’re more likely to see patients with a manic episode whereas the depressive episodes are less likely during this time. Is this at all related to seasonal affective disorder? There is one line of thinking that it is related to seasonal affective disorder (SAD), [a condition in which people experience depression during the winter months which subsides in spring and summer] It’s not known in either case what triggers t
