| Summary: | Background and research question: Seasonal affective disorder (SAD) is hallmarked by depressive episodes, often during autumn and winter with a remission during spring and summer, which occur yearly and are recurrent. Alcohol use disorder is a substance disorder where a person suffers from a clinically significant impairment because of alcohol abuse. This study examines the relationship between seasonality and alcohol consumption. Methods: An online questionnaire was completed by participants (N = 336). Spearman correlations was used to examine whether high amounts of alcohol consumption and binge drinking coincided with high scores on the Global seasonality score (GSS) of the SPAQ and high depression scores on the DASS-21. Results: The results suggest binge drinking being more prevalent than frequent, but moderate, consumption of beverages containing alcohol. Furthermore, positive correlations were observed at p < .05 between scores on the GSS and amount of alcohol consumed (r = .14), as well as binge drinking (r = .14), indicating a possible link between alcohol consumption and seasonality. However, after adjusting to correction for mutiple comparisons, none of the correlations were significant. The current findings must therefore be interpreted with caution. Conclusion and significance: The current study could offer insights into the relationship between binge drinking and seasonality, as well as amount of alcohol consumed and seasonality. The relationship between binge drinking and SAD is speculated as being mediated by various factors, such as chronotype and age. Further factors could also mediate the relationship, even though not mentioned in this study. However, this mediation is hypothetical and further research should examine the relationship between alcohol consumption habits and seasonality via longitudinal designs to analyze the relationship in more depth. Bakgrunnur og rannsóknarspurning: Árstíðabundið þunglyndi einkennist af árlegum og endurteknum þunglyndisatvikum sem koma oft fram að hausti ...
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