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. 2019 Feb;30(1):133-141.
doi: 10.1515/pteridines-2019-0016. Epub 2019 Aug 23.

Mood Worsening on Days with High Pollen Counts is associated with a Summer Pattern of Seasonality

Faisal Akram  1 , Tyler B Jennings  1 , John W Stiller  1 , Christopher A Lowry  2 , Teodor T Postolache  3
Affiliations

Mood Worsening on Days with High Pollen Counts is associated with a Summer Pattern of Seasonality

Faisal Akram et al. Pteridines. 2019 Feb.

Abstract

Background: Summer/spring-type seasonal affective disorder (S-SAD) is the less common subtype of seasonal affective disorder and evidence regarding potential triggers of S-SAD is scarce. Recent reports support association of airborne-pollen with seasonal exacerbation of depression (mood seasonality) and timing of suicidal behavior. Therefore, we hypothesized that Old Order Amish (OOA) with summer/spring pattern of seasonality (abbreviated as summer pattern) and S-SAD will have significant mood worsening on high pollen days.

Methods: A seasonal pattern of mood worsening and SAD parameters were estimated using Seasonal Pattern Assessment Questionnaire (SPAQ). Age- and gender-adjusted ANCOVAs and post hoc analyses were conducted to compare mood worsening on days with high pollen counts between summer-pattern vs no-summer-pattern of mood worsening, S-SAD vs no-S-SAD, winter-pattern vs no-winter-pattern of mood worsening, and W-SAD vs no-W-SAD groups.

Results: The prevalence of S-SAD was 0.4%, while 4.5% of individuals had a summer pattern of mood seasonality. A statistically significant difference for mood worsening on high pollen days was observed between summer-pattern vs no-summer-pattern of mood worsening (p = 0.006). The significant association between S-SAD vs no-SAD groups (p = 0.032) for mood worsening on high pollen days did not withstand Bonferroni adjustment for multiple comparisons. No significant association was found for winter-pattern vs no-winter-pattern of mood worsening (p = 0.61) and for W-SAD vs no-W-SAD (p = 0.19) groups.

Conclusion: Our results are consistent with previous studies implicating links between aeroallergen exposure and summer pattern of seasonality, but not the winter pattern of seasonality.

Keywords: Aeroallergen; Mood Disorder; Old Order Amish; Seasonality; Summer SAD.

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Conflict of interest statement

Conflict of Interest: The authors state no conflict of interest.

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