Seasonal affective disorders among rural Finns and Lapps

• Published in: Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica
• Main Authors: Saarijärvi, S., Lauerma, H., Helenius, H., Saarilehto, S.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Wiley 1999
• Subjects: Northern Finland; Lapland
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1600-0447.1999.tb07206.x; https://api.wiley.com/onlinelibrary/tdm/v1/articles/10.1111%2Fj.1600-0447.1999.tb07206.x; https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/j.1600-0447.1999.tb07206.x

Saarijärvi S, Lauerma H, Helenius H, Saarilehto S. Seasonal affective disorders among rural Finns and Lapps. We investigated the prevalence of seasonal affective disorder (SAD) and subsyndromal SAD (S‐SAD) in rural populations in south‐western and northern Finland by using the Seasonal Pattern Assessment Questionnaire (SPAQ). A total of 1710 SPAQs were analysed. The prevalences of overall SAD and S‐SAD were 12.0% and 27.1%, respectively. Winter SAD (W‐SAD) was the most common type, with prevalences of 9.5%, for W‐SAD and 18.4% for W‐S‐SAD. The prevalences of overall and winter SAD did not differ between Finns living in northern and south‐western Finland. Among the Lapps, W‐SAD cases were less frequent than among the Finns in Lapland. Overall seasonality correlated significantly with female gender, high body mass index, high level of education and young age.