I’m back from New York now, and wondering where my jet lag ended and that oh so predictable British winter lethargy kicked in. I’m one of those people who functions better with a charge from a lightbox, and the time has most definitely come to be using it.
Seasonal Affective Disorder is all in the mind, of course, but that doesn’t mean it’s not real – it’s like placebo. I was interested when I visited a neuroscientist at University College London and saw that he has the same lightbox model as me. I asked him if he thought it was actually a placebo. “Who cares how it works?” he said, laughing. “It works - that's enough for me.”
Actually, there’s evidence to show it has a biochemical effect (as there is for placebo; when will we stop saying "just a placebo" as if it wasn't a powerful effect?). Last year, a paper in – wait for it – Neuropsychopharmacology showed that it’s to do with serotonin (the happy molecule) being removed from cells too efficiently. In those who suffer from winter depression, the serotonin transporter molecule is getting on for twice as active as it should be. The removal rate returns to normal levels in summer, but can be slowed down in winter by light therapy. There’s a New Scientist story about the study here.
I’ll get round to blogging about my experience of talking at the Hayden Planetarium very soon, but – well, you know: I’m seasonally affected, aren’t I? There’s something pleasingly poetic about a sluggishness that results from overactive serotonin transporter molecules. Those babies are really going for it. No wonder I’m so tired…
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