New Wellcome Witnesses publication: ‘The Recent History of Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)'
A new
volume of Wellcome Witnesses to Contemporary Medicine is freely available to
download at the History of Modern Biomedicine Research Group website:
The
Recent History of Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)
The
variation of mood with the seasons has been acknowledged for a long time. It
was in 1984 that the term Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) was first used in a
paper by Norman Rosenthal and colleagues at the National Institute of Mental
Health in Bethesda, MD. This Witness Seminar looked at the research leading up
to that paper and the thirty years of subsequent investigations into the
disorder which affects a significant proportion of the population.
Chaired by Professor
Sir Brian Follett, participants, some of whom suffered from SAD, included two
of the scientists involved in the early SAD research in the USA – Alfred Lewy
and Norman Rosenthal, biologists studying photoperiodism, and representatives
from SADA, the support organization in the UK for sufferers of this disorder.
Discussion
addressed the theories of causation; research into circadian rhythms and the
role of melatonin; the symptoms, diagnosis and prevalence of the disorder; and
treatment with artificial bright light and drugs. It also covered patient
activism, the various perceptions of SAD by medical professionals and its
diagnostic classification, and the difficulties of funding research and
treatment.
Overy C and
Tansey E M. (eds) (2014)
Wellcome
Witnesses to Contemporary Medicine, vol. 51. London: Queen Mary, University of
London.
ISBN 978 0
90223 897 8
This volume
can be ordered from www.amazon.co.uk; www.amazon.com; and all good booksellers for
£6/$10 plus postage, using the ISBN. For further details of this and other
volumes in the series visit: http://www.histmodbiomed.org/article/wellcome-witnesses-volumes.
All volumes
are freely available to download.
Regards,
Alan
Yabsley
Multimedia
Manager, Makers of Modern Biomedicine project
School of History
Queen Mary University of London, Mile End Road, London E1 4NS
020 7882 3472