Science Paper for a General Audience

Winner

The Dean's Award for Writing

In the Physical and Natural Sciences

Awarded for the best essay which presents with clarity and

Scientific accuracy issues, controversies, phenomenon or

Experiments and has suitability for and value to

Its intended audience

Without Knowing Everything Under the Sun

When the plane landed at Orly Airport, the sky was gray and so was the city. My first three weeks outside the United States and the only real impressions I had of Paris were three dollar bags of cough drops and overcast days. When spring finally arrived, I started spending more time in the jardins and less time being depressed; I was even getting a tan. Even before the reassuring experience in France, I had been a big believer in the healing power of the sun. Generally after a few days of rain and being indoors I noticed myself becoming weepy and feeling tired and unhealthy. During the winter, despite constant napping and attempts to regulate my sleeping patterns, I was listless and drowsy. Understandably, I was interested to learn that winter depression had been officially labeled as Seasonal Affective Disorder or SAD. SAD is still a relatively new area of scientific study, and in terms of understanding what the disease does, little is known. What we do know, strangely enough, is how to treat SAD and get rid of its symptoms; it dangles in a realm of scientific knowledge between obscurity and comprehension. Nonetheless, simply realizing that my depression in Paris was related to a lack of sunshine allowed me to alter my circumstances. Being aware of something, even without completely understanding it, leads to using what we know to create a change in what we've already experienced.

Interest in Seasonal Affective Disorder was sparked in the early 1980s when a patient of Peter Mueller, a psychiatrist from the National Institute of Mental health (NIMH), complained of severe depression in the winter, yet seemed happy in the spring (Wurtman and Wurtman, 68-9). Both the scientific world and the general public took interest in this seasonal melancholy. As public awareness increased, those who noticed themselves feeling down during winter months were encouraged to do something about their despondency. But what could scientists tell them about their winters of despair?

One hypothesis for the cause of SAD associates sunlight with circadian rhythms, regulatory body processes on a 24-hour cycle. Sunlight is thought to suppress the synthesis of melatonin, a hormone involved in the regulation of sleep that follows a "distinct circadian rhythm" (Wurtman and Wurtman 71). In an experiment done in 1980 it was discovered that the secretion of melatonin is greatly suppressed by sufficiently intense light (Wurtman and Wurtman 72). Since melatonin is noted for inducing sleepiness and decreasing alertness, a relationship to SAD's symptoms is plausible. Other circadian processes like eating patterns and body temperature may also be affected by the lack of sunlight in the winter, or as Thomas Wehr from NIMH suggests, the mechanisms in the brain that originally dealt with seasonal adjustment may have been modified by artificial light (Bower 63).

Another investigator of SAD, Michael Terman from the New York State Psychiatric Institute, submits that any eye lacking insensitivity produces less retinal activity in the winter (Bower 63). The effects of this decreased activity on the transmission of chemicals to the brain have not yet been identified, although some scientists think the communication between the eye and brain is the key to understanding SAD (Bower 63). But these are all just theories. The facts about SAD revolve around the seeable effects of different treatments.

SAD, like other forms of depression, causes its victims to feel anxious, lethargic, and, naturally, sad. Yet SAD also leads to what patients describe as "difficulty awakening," cravings for carbohydrates and serious weight gain (Bower 62). Most of the symptoms of SAD can be drastically reduced by spending an extra hour out-of-doors during the winter months or sitting under a lamp of high intensity light first thing in the morning. Anthony Levittee of the Clarke Institute of Psychiatry in Toronto explains that experimenters "don't yet know what physical aspects of light have positive effects on SAD patients," but they do know the positive effects are there (Bower 63).

I'm convinced that some form, some degree, of SAD affects us all. Most people I talked to about this paper claimed to experience a change in their mental state during the winter season. One students asks, "When does 'normal moodiness' become a 'disorder'?" Science may not hold the interest of every individual, but as individuals we must decide when a problem becomes an uncontrollable disruption of a normal life. It is up to us to be aware of facts that improve the quality of our lives. Stephen Jay Gould set an example when he refused to let the median be the message. While doing research on abdominal mesothelioma, a rare cancer he had contracted, he discovered that the median life expectancy after discovery was eight months. After looking further into the matter he discovered that some patients live several years with the disease. He took the knowledge he had and created hope (Gould 475-477).

A little knowledge can go a long way. Simple tips or anecdotes are useful as long as they are available; we don't have to understand them to use them. People have been taking aspirin for a hundred years without knowing exactly how it relieves pain. Acupuncture and plant remedies were used long before anyone understood the "scientific" effects they had on the body. Science is a conglomeration of constantly changing theories attached to inert facts and observations; why do we have to grasp Seasonal Affective Disorder to do anything about it? We don't. We can work with SAD without all the facts. Already we know more about how to treat it, without understanding exactly how it treats us.

WORKS CITED

Bower, Bruce. "Here Comes the Sun." Science News 142

25 July 1992: 62-63.

Gould, Stephen Jay. Bully for Brontosaurus: Reflections in Natural History.

New York: W.W. Norton and Company, Inc., 1991. 473-478.

Wurtman, Richard J. and Judith J. Wurtman. "Carbohydrates and Depression."

Scientific American Jan. 1989: 68-75.

-- A. Kathleen McKinney

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