***Apologies for cross-posting***

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)

http://www.histmodbiomed.org/witsem/vol51

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

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020 7882 3472

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