A Danish study has recently revealed that the number of people diagnosed with depression surprisingly increases after the transition from daylight saving time at the end of October. Scientists believe that this may be brought by the disturbance in the shifting of hours in the circadian rhythms of a person's body. This condition is said to have been tied to depressive episodes in the past.
According to reports released by the International Business Times, it was found that scientists are allegedly suspecting the said transition as the one responsible for the increasing issues on people's mental health which includes the risk of being diagnosed with unipolar depressive disorder. However, experts highly emphasize that there are limited evidences that can possibly be used to confirm this hypothesis.
CTV News has also revealed that the study which was initiated by Associate Professor Søren D. Østergaard, together with his other colleagues from Aarhus University Hospital in Risskov, Denmark, and in collaboration with the universities of Copenhagen and Stanford has found that the number of patients diagnosed with depression at psychiatric hospitals is surprisingly increasing after the transition from daylight saving time to standard time.
Moreover, based on the development in the number of diagnoses leading up to the transition, the findings have shown that the numbers of cases are found to be close to eight percent higher than expected. The team also claims that they are confident about the increase being brought about by the transition. Østergaard said that as other variants such as the change in the length of the day or the decline in weather had been deliberately taken into account, their study shows that no other factors affect the increase in the number of patients.
Østergaard concludes that the findings shown in their study should induce an increased awareness of depression in the weeks following the transition to standard time.
