title: Pharmacotherapy of seasonal affective disorder.
abstract: Seasonal affective disorder is a common variant of recurrent major depressive disorder or bipolar disorder. Treatment with bright artificial light has been found to be effective in this condition. However, for patients who do not respond to light therapy or those who lack compliance, conventional drug treatment with antidepressants also has been proposed. Substances with selective serotonergic or noradrenergic mechanisms should be preferred over older antidepressants. Although there are a number of open and controlled studies evaluating different compounds, these studies were often limited by relatively small sample sizes. Furthermore, there are no studies specifically addressing bipolar seasonal depression. This article will review the published literature on pharmacotherapy of seasonal affective disorder.
authors.affiliation: Department of General Psychiatry at the Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria. edda.pjrek@meduniwien.ac.at
authors.forename: Edda
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Pjrek
authors.forename: Dietmar
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Winkler
authors.forename: Siegfried
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kasper
mesh_terms: D018491:Dopamine Agonists / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D006801:Humans; D008711:Metergoline / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D016574:Seasonal Affective Disorder / Q000188:drug therapy*; D012702:Serotonin Antagonists / Q000627:therapeutic use*
chemical_list: D018491:Dopamine Agonists; D012702:Serotonin Antagonists; D008711:Metergoline