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Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
progress in neurology and psychiatry
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.19
H-Index - 12
eISSN - 1931-227X
pISSN - 1367-7543
DOI - 10.1002/pnp.448
Subject(s) - danish , demography , depression (economics) , incidence (geometry) , distress , medicine , pediatrics , psychology , psychiatry , clinical psychology , philosophy , linguistics , sociology , economics , macroeconomics , physics , optics
Ending summer time increases depression Putting the clocks back at the end of summer increases the incidence of depressive episodes by 11%, say Danish investigators ( Epidemiology 2016; doi: 10.1097/EDE.580 ). Their analysis of the national Psychiatric Central Research Register from 1995 to 2012 included a total of 185 419 hospital contacts for episodes of unipolar depression. The incidence rate increased by 11% during the period of transition from summer time to winter time, then diminished over the following 10 weeks. There was no corresponding increase in spring when clocks moved forward. The authors suggest the change could be explained by ‘distress associated with the sudden advancement of sunset, marking the coming of a long period of short days’.