Evaluation of seasonal variations for the seasonal pattern assessment in mood disorder patients and healthy controls.

Publisher: BioMed Central Country of Publication: England NLM ID: 100968559 Publication Model: Electronic Cited Medium: Internet ISSN: 1471-244X (Electronic) Linking ISSN: 1471244X NLM ISO Abbreviation: BMC Psychiatry Subsets: MEDLINE

Original Publication: London : BioMed Central, [2001-

Seasons* ; Seasonal Affective Disorder*/diagnosis ; Seasonal Affective Disorder*/epidemiology ; Seasonal Affective Disorder*/psychology ; Surveys and Questionnaires*/statistics & numerical data ; Mood Disorders*/diagnosis ; Mood Disorders*/epidemiology ; Mood Disorders*/psychology ; Symptom Assessment*/methods ; Symptom Assessment*/statistics & numerical data; Case-Control Studies ; Prevalence ; Factor Analysis, Statistical ; East Asian People/psychology ; Language ; Reproducibility of Results ; Sensitivity and Specificity ; Cross-Sectional Studies ; Longitudinal Studies ; Translations ; Taiwan/epidemiology ; Humans ; Male ; Female ; Adult ; Middle Aged

Competing Interests: Declarations. Ethics approval and consent to participate: The study was approved by the relevant ethics committees, including National Taiwan University Hospital Research Ethics Committee A (201805028RINA), Taiwan Adventist Hospital Institutional Review Board (106-E-34), Taipei City Hospital Research Ethics Committee (TCHIRB-10712115 and TCHIRB-11002003), and Taipei Medical University Joint Institutional Review Board (N201610009). All participants signed informed consent forms after receiving a full explanation of the study from the interviewers. Consent for publication: Not applicable. Competing interests: The authors declare no competing interests.
Background: Seasonal disturbances were common in mood disorders patients. The global seasonality score (GSS), derived from the Seasonal Pattern Assessment Questionnaire (SPAQ), was widely used to assess seasonality and related symptoms. This study aimed to establish the structure of the Chinese version of SPAQ. We examined the stability of seasonal pattern assessment across four seasons when administering SPAQ. The prevalence of seasonal affective disorder was estimated using SPAQ criteria.
Methods: We recruited 596 mood disorder patients and 138 healthy controls (HC), with 121 patients and 37 HC followed up over four seasons. An exploratory factor analysis examined the GSS factor structure. We evaluated correlations between GSS symptom dimensions and "the degree of problems due to seasonal changes" and used intraclass correlation coefficient reliability (ICCR) to assess the consistency of symptom dimensions across seasons.
Results: Approximately a quarter of mood disorder patients met the criteria for seasonal affective disorder. The Chinese SPAQ revealed a two-factor structure: psychological and food-related symptoms among patients. The GSS showed a significant correlation (r = 0.64) with the degree of problems due to seasonal changes in mood disorder patients, while energy level and sleep significantly correlated with GSS (r > 0.75) in HC. Reporting reliability (ICCR > 0.4) was acceptable for GSS and mood/energy levels in patients across seasons.
Conclusions: Seasonal variations were observed in reporting the symptom dimensions of the seasonal pattern assessment, while the GSS remained relatively stable in both mood disorder patients and HC. SPAQ is a useful tool for measuring seasonality, irrespective of the season of administration.
(© 2025. The Author(s).)

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TPCH-110-62 Tapei City Hospital; MST 105-2628-B-002-028-MY3 National Science and Technology Council; NHRI-EX106-10627NI National Health Research Institutes; 109L7860 National Taiwan University

Keywords: Bipolar disorder; Major depressive disorder; Seasonal affective disorder; Seasonal pattern; Seasonal pattern assessment questionnaire

Date Created: 20250507 Date Completed: 20250708 Latest Revision: 20250708

20250709

PMC12057076

10.1186/s12888-025-06916-y

40335946