Cognitive characteristics of seasonal affective disorder: a preliminary investigation

Light therapy, the current treatment for Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD), does not help everyone suffering from SAD. This paper examines whether patients with SAD potentially might benefit from cognitive behaviour therapy by investigating whether they show a similar cognitive profile to those with non-seasonal depression for whom cognitive therapy has been shown to be effective. Ten subjects with SAD were compared to 11 non-seasonally depressed and 10 normal controls on a range of measures including the Automatic Thoughts Questionnaire and the Dysfunctional Assumptions Scale. One-way analysis of variance showed that the SAD group reported significantly more negative automatic thoughts and dysfunctional attitudes than a non-depressed control group but did not differ from a group with non-seasonal depression. The results suggest that patients with SAD may respond to cognitive behaviour therapy like those with non-seasonal depression. Further research is therefore recommended to examine the efficacy of cognitive therapy as a complementary addition to light therapy in the treatment of SAD and to examine other cognitive aspects of SAD.