Seasonality of Depression Referrals in Older People

Abstract

Seasonal affective disorder is becoming more widely recognised as a prevalent mood disorder in the adult population. However, few studies have investigated the link between sunlight exposure and mood in the elderly. Referrals to the community Mental Health Care for Older People (MHCOP) in the Hackney and City area, were screened for the number of patients referred with depression in three separate years (2007, 2009 and 2011) in order to determine whether more referrals were made to the service during darker months of the year (October to March) than in the lighter months of the year (April to September). When data from the three years was combined, we found no significant increase in the number of referrals to the MHCOP in the darker months (Chi squared value 1.375, p value (2 tailed) 0.2409). We observed no statistically significant seasonal pattern of referrals, this suggests that depression in older people is not more prevalent in darker months of the year.