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Faculty of MedicineSeasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) Information | UBC Mood Disorders Centre | Department of Psychiatry
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  • UBC-led study shows that light therapy is effective for nonseasonal depression

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  • Tips for SAD in a post-COVID World

    Strategies to help you manage SAD during the COVID-19 pandemic. Read More

  • Welcome to Information on Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) and Light Therapy

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  • What is SAD?

    Learn more about Seasonal Affective Disorder and treatment on our FAQ. Read More

  • A Clinician’s Guide to Using Light Therapy

    This informative guide helps busy mental health clinicians & other health professionals to better diagnose SAD and incorporate light therapy into their everyday clinical practice. Read More

Welcome to

SAD and Light Therapy Information

from the UBC Mood Disorders Centre

What is SAD and Light Therapy?

Many people may feel mildly “depressed” during the winter, but some people have more severe bouts of feeling down all the time, low energy, problems with sleep and appetite, loss of interest, and reduced concentration, to the point where they have difficulty functioning at work or in the home. We say that these people have clinical depression, or “major depressive episode”, to distinguish these more severe symptoms from normal everyday ups and downs.

Seasonal affective disorder (“affective” is a psychiatric term for mood), or SAD, describes people who have these clinical depressions only during the autumn and winter seasons. During the spring and summer, they feel well and “normal”. For this reason, SAD is sometimes called winter depression.

Other common symptoms of SAD include oversleeping, extreme fatigue, increased appetite with carbohydrate craving, overeating, and weight gain. With more severe episodes, people may have suicidal thoughts.

The good news is that there are many effective treatments for SAD, including light therapy, a safe and easy-to-use medical treatment. Light therapy is now also demonstrated to be effective for nonseasonal depression (major depressive disorder) and bipolar depression.

This website provides medically-validated information and resources on SAD and light therapy for the public and for health care professionals, compiled by psychiatrists with expertise in diagnosing and treating SAD and depressive disorders at the UBC Mood Disorders Centre in Vancouver, Canada.

 


The SAD and Light Therapy Information site is funded entirely by the Mood Disorders Centre. We do not receive commercial funding for this website or post commercial advertising.

The information provided on this site is designed to support, not replace, the relationship that exists between a patient/site visitor and their existing physician.

 

 

Mood Disorders Centre
Faculty of Medicine
Djavad Mowafaghian Centre for Brain Health
2215 Wesbrook Mall
Vancouver, BC Canada V6T 1Z3
Tel 604 822 7325
Fax 604 822 7922
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