Seasonal affective disorder

Abstract

Seasonal Affective Disorder: Practice and Research (Partonen & Magnusson, 2001) is the only recent, comprehensive book on SAD written for a professional readership. Before stating my view that this is a very good book, I should declare an interest, in that I contributed one of the chapters. Among the 46 authors are the majority of the prominent researchers in the field since SAD was ‘rediscovered’ in the early 1980s. The first half of the book is clinically oriented, with chapters on the clinical picture, epidemiology and treatment of winter SAD. The rest of the book is targeted more at the non-clinical researcher, addressing the pathogenesis of SAD and including chapters on the photoperiod, the circadian clock, photobiology, melatonin, genetic influences, sleep and the weather. Most psychiatrists will probably dip in and out of these more biological chapters, but should find some intriguing facts and insights. The book was positively appraised by a (sceptical) BMJ reviewer and, while it is quite expensive at £ 59.50, there should be a place for it in good psychiatric libraries.