We have previously described the syndrome of seasonal affective disorder (SAD), a condition characterized by recurrent winter depressions alternating with remissions or hypomania in the spring and summer. During the past year we have extended our observations particularly in the recognition and description of children and adolescents with this condition and the specific way in which they manifest the disorder. We have asked parents to rank in importance the symptoms they have noted during the fall and winter months and are in the process of devising a rating scale to measure changes in these specific symptoms. During the coming year we are planning to collaborate with Dr. William Sonis in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Minnesota to further characterize this disorder in children. We are also continuing to collect clinical and demographic information about all new adult patients admitted to our program. However, the consistency in the descriptive information on patients over the past 3 years suggests that new data are likely simply to corroborate those data already collected.
