Seasonal Depression Is More Common in Women Than in Men

Seasonal depression is more common in women than men, according to a recent study.

For their study, the researchers evaluated more than 150,000 participants enrolled in the United Kingdom (UK) Biobank Cohort.
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The cosinor method was used to analyze evidence of seasonality of low mood, anhedonia, tenseness, tiredness, and total depressive symptoms scores in women and men. The effect of demographic and lifestyle factors, change in day length, and/or outdoor temperature on seasonal variations in depression symptoms was also assessed.

Results revealed that seasonality affected anhedonia, tiredness, and total depressive symptom scores in women, but not in men. The researchers found that longer days were associated with reduced low mood and anhedonia scores, and that scores peaked during winter. They noted that these associations were independent of demographic and lifestyle factors.

Longer days were also associated with increased tiredness in women. This association was not independent of the average outdoor temperature prior to assessment.

“This large, population-based study provides evidence of seasonal variation in depressive symptoms in women,” the researchers wrote. “Shorter days were associated with increased feelings of low mood and anhedonia in women. Clinicians should be aware of these population-level sex differences in seasonal mood variations in order to aid recognition and treatment of depression and subclinical depressive symptoms.”

—Christina Vogt

Reference:

Lyall LM, Wyse CA, Morales CAC, et al. Seasonality of depressive symptoms in women but not in men: a cross-sectional study in the UK Biobank cohort [Published online January 3, 2018]. J Affective Dis. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jad.2017.12.106.