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Author: Feng Lei, Department of Psychiatry, Beijing Anding Hospital, Capital Medical University
Autumn depression, as a relatively unique subtype of depression, has some specific symptoms, such as changes in sleep. Many typical depression patients may have difficulty falling asleep, early awakening, shortened sleep time. However, in patients with autumn depression (seasonal depression), there may be increased sleep, excessive sleepiness, low energy, fatigue, as well as increased appetite and binge eating.
In diagnosing seasonal mood disorders, in addition to the conventional diagnostic criteria for depression, it is also necessary to see if the patient has experienced the same symptoms at the same time for at least two years. If seasonal mood disorders only occurred in one year, the patient’s condition should be observed for the next year.
In terms of treatment, the methods for treating seasonal mood disorders are similar to those for treating common depression, divided into three categories – medication, physical therapy, and psychotherapy. Regardless of the treatment method, patient compliance is a key challenge.
Compliance means that the patient follows the doctor’s advice, cooperates with the doctor, and completes the entire treatment cycle. Some patients tend to give up early in treatment, thinking they are not seeing improvement in a short time, or feeling the treatment duration is too long to endure.
For example, in medication treatment, for patients experiencing their first episode of depression, the initial treatment phase may last 2 to 3 months, focusing on acute phase treatment to control most symptoms or make them less pronounced. However, completing this treatment phase does not mark the end of the treatment; the second phase is needed to consolidate and prevent symptom recurrence. Therefore, for patients with their first episode of depression, the entire treatment cycle may last up to 6 to 9 months.
For patients who have experienced depression episodes more than twice, the entire treatment cycle will be correspondingly longer, possibly a year, two years, or even longer. Therefore, the treatment of chronic diseases like depression requires good cooperation between the patient and the doctor and long-term persistence.
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