The classic initial studies on SAD found that the vast majority of patients had bipolar illness. These patients had more hypomanic/manic episodes in the spring and summer and more depressive episodes in the fall and winter.
Unfortunately, many patients and clinicians assume that if a diagnosis is a disorder in the DSM system, it must therefore be a distinct disease in the real world. This is not the case for SAD, which is just another way of labeling the seasonality of affective illness. In the DSM-5, SAD is now known as depressive disorder with seasonal pattern.
For more on depression, read here.
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Cite this: Stephen Soreff. Fast Five Quiz: Are You Prepared to Confront Seasonal Affective Disorder? - Medscape - Nov 23, 2016.
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