One of the nation’s foremost researchers of SAD, Rohan received a $2 million grant from the National Institute of Mental Health to investigate the effectiveness of trading negative thoughts for a more positive mindset to ease winter sluggishness, sadness and craving for comfort foods.
After testing both artificial light and attitude-lightening practices for six years, Rohan and fellow researchers at UVM’s Burlington campus found each were “comparably effective” in improving a SAD sufferer’s mental and physical well-being during the study subject’s time in treatment.
But participants taught how to deal with winter differently through “cognitive behavioral therapy” coped better in successive seasons, according to results published in the American Journal of Psychiatry.
“People need to learn if they have SAD, there may be another choice,” Rohan concludes. “We can’t change what time the sun rises and sets, but we can change our thoughts and behaviors.”
That’s good news for the more than 60,000 Vermonters and 14 million Americans who suffer from SAD, ranging from 1.5 percent of the population in southern states to nearly 10 percent in the north.
People with SAD — a condition believed linked to a lack of sunlight and its effect on the part of the brain that controls one’s sleep, mood and motivation — can feel sad, worthless or unfocused, lose energy and enthusiasm and face shifts in their sleeping or eating patterns, often hungering for carbohydrates.
“The symptoms are the same as depression,” Rohan says. “They simply begin during the fall or winter and fully remit during the spring.”
Rohan, an upstate New York native, became interested in SAD nearly a quarter-century ago as a graduate student at the University of Maine in Orono, then began studying it after taking her first job at the U.S. Defense Department’s Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences in Bethesda, Maryland.
For decades, experts have treated SAD by exposing sufferers to more light (both from the sun and special bulbs), a diet high in protein and low in carbohydrates, regular exercise and, if prescribed, antidepressants.
Enter the National Institute of Mental Health, which awarded Rohan and UVM a $2 million grant for a multi-year trial (“this is the Cadillac study”) of unprecedented scope.
UVM gathered 177 volunteers for six weeks of free treatment. Some sat 18 inches in front of full-spectrum light boxes (screened of ultraviolet rays) for at least 30 minutes each morning; others worked with a psychologist during a dozen 1½-hour, twice-a-week counseling sessions.
Many people who find winter a bear just want to hibernate. But Rohan says that hurts more than helps.
“A common thought that people with SAD report is ‘I hate winter.’ If you’re wallowing on the couch thinking that, do you feel better or feel worse? We could replace the thought with, ‘I prefer summer to winter.’”
Study subjects were encouraged to get up and get out, “to find ways to stay engaged and experience pleasure during the winter season through regular routines, hobbies, clubs and social activities.”
“Winter sports are great,” Rohan adds, “but it can be taking a class or joining a club — anything that gets the person active.”
During the study, participants using either light or talk therapy reported comparable relief. But two winters after treatment, just 30 percent of those with light boxes still took the time to work with them. As a result, nearly half of that group reported a recurrence of depression, compared with only a quarter of those taught how to change their thought and behavior patterns to improve their mental and physical states.
Rohan isn’t the only expert studying SAD, but her cognitive behavioral therapy study is one of a kind. That’s why she’s finding herself in a widening spotlight — not only as an expert for popular media outlets such as Oprah Magazine, but also as the author of “Coping with the Seasons,” a manual from Oxford University Press for mental health professionals.
Rohan is seeking more grant money to study ways to identify which treatments work best for specific types of sufferers. In the meantime, she advises people to seek a professional’s help with evaluation and treatment — especially with full-spectrum lights, as they can have side effects and adversely affect sleep.
“Learn to be more proactive in the winter — find ways to be social, engaged, and find enjoyment,” she says. “Think outside of the light box.”