Winter depression with spring exacerbation: A frequent occurrence in women with seasonal affective disorder

Winter depression (WD) usually starts in October/November and remits in February/March, but some experience a relatively short depressive exacerbation in spring. To further characterize this spring exacerbation (SE), 84 previously diagnosed WD patients rated in retrospect whether they had experienced SE after their otherwise typical WD in the years before receiving active treatment. Thirty-nine percent of the women and 12% of the men reported to have experienced SE many times or practically every year; another 28 and 29%, respectively, had experienced SE a few times. In general, the symptomatology during SE was about the same as during WD. Female patients who had experienced SE many times or practically every year were marginally older (p = 0.05) and had suffered many more previous WD episodes (p = 0.0005) than female patients having experienced SE only a few times or never.