| Winter-over syndrome | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Midday during a polar winter in Finnmark, Norway. Note that the sun has not fully risen. | |
| Symptoms | Depression, insomnia, hostility, anger/irritability, diminished cognitive performance, mild hypnotic states, irritable bowel syndrome |
| Duration | 7-8 months (Polar winter) |
| Causes | Psychological stresses and isolation at research stations in Antarctica and the Arctic in winter |
| Treatment | End of winter and/or departure from polar regions |
The winter-over syndrome is a condition that occurs in individuals who "winter-over" throughout the Antarctic (or Arctic) winter, which can last seven to eight months.[1] It has been observed in inhabitants of research stations in Antarctica, as well as in polar bases such as Thule, Alert and Eureka. It consists of a variety of behavioral and medical disturbances, including irritability, depression, insomnia, absentmindedness, aggressive behavior, and irritable bowel syndrome.[2][3]
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Transcription
Don't forget to wear a jacket, or you're going to catch a cold-- or will you? Hey, friends, Laci Green here. Ai, ai, ai, it's that time of year again. Everyone's getting sick, including me, sadly, still getting over a little something something. On Facebook, our "D News" friend Kristi Jimerson asks, could you guys do a video on why we get sick in the winter more than summer? I've done some research, and there doesn't seem to be any definitive answers and I'm really curious now. Me too, Kristi, me too. It's conventional wisdom that people tend to get sick more during the colder months. In fact, the word "influenza" comes from the aged Italian phrase, "influenza di freddo," or "influence of the cold." There's an odd conundrum here, because scientists have found again and again that being in the cold doesn't actually make us sick or more prone to getting sick. So that part is just a myth. Even when we're shivering, our core body temperature stays the same. This is thanks to the magic of homeostasis. So if it's not the cold that's making us sick, what is it? The explanation scientists have to offer is that when it's cold outside, people are crowded indoors. All throughout the year at any given time, a few people around you are infected with some kind of contagious viruses or bacteria, even though they may not have any symptoms. But in the winter, we're in closer contact with them, which makes it infinitely easier for those bacteria and viruses to hop from person to person. We're also in closed air systems inside, so airborne circulate through our homes, offices, and schools, which brings me to my second perpetrator-- schools, or more specifically, germy, sneezy, snot-nosed children. A huge study at the University of Warwick pegged children as the top spreaders of infection. It's because they have the highest number of daily social contacts. Children go back to school, then they're kept indoors, with their germy peers right around the cold season. So they infect each other, and then they infect their parents, who infect their coworkers. And before you know it, the whole freaking world is sick. The last contributing factor pertains to the flu specifically. Different microbes and viruses all survive and transmit at different temperatures. And for the flu, it transmits into cold. At 41 degrees Fahrenheit, the flu virus is most stable. It's ready to infect you and wreak havoc on your body and life. But as it becomes warmer, it's harder and harder for the virus to transmit. In fact, once the temperature hits 86 degrees, the flu virus can't be transmitted anymore. So there you go-- the key to avoid getting sick this winter is to avoid all contact with other human beings. Just stay in your basement this holiday season, like the good little internet citizen that you are. Or maybe just head off to your own private tropical island. Thanks for joining me for "D News." Hope this helped answer your question, Kristi. If you folks have any other video topics you'd like to see, let me down below on, or on Twitter at D News. And we'll check them out. Bye, bye.
Contributing factors
The Antarctic winter is a period of no physical contact with other continents or Antarctic stations, including no airplanes, ships, or mail. The area has the driest desert climate on Earth, a low air pressure, and an oxygen-poor atmosphere. It is completely cut off during winter, with a mean temperature of −51 °C (−60 °F), and the lowest recorded temperature is −85 °C (−121 °F).[4] For these reasons, the immobility, monotony, harsh physical environment, sexual deprivation, and the general isolation are believed to contribute to increased anxiety and depression among the residents of Antarctic stations.[1]
Several studies have been done over the years to determine the contributing causes, or stresses, of "winter-over" syndrome. These include stress, social isolation, subsyndromal seasonal affective disorder and polar T3 syndrome.[5][2] The cold, danger, and hardships do not appear to be major stresses. The most important psychological stresses appear to be the problems of individual adjustment to the group, the relative monotony of the environment, and the absence of certain accustomed sources of emotional satisfaction.[6] In addition to isolation from the outside world, there is confinement or a lack of isolation within the research stations themselves. During field work conducted at the McMurdo and South Pole stations in 1988 and 1989, informants complained that the lack of privacy and constant gossip within the community had a negative influence on social relationships, especially between men and women. As a result, 60% of one's leisure time is spent alone in a dorm room, whereas others are forced to work and live in confined spaces due to the nature of their work.[7]
Symptoms
While research around the winter-over syndrome dates back to the 1950s, there is no set of exclusive indicators that can typically reveal a diagnosis of the same. "Our analyses of the human experience in Antarctica suggest that there are few, if any, traits that serve as useful predictors of performance during the austral winter," Palinkas wrote in a paper called "The Psychology of Antarctic Research." Some of the symptoms included depression, insomnia, anger or irritability, feelings of hostility towards those around you, diminished cognitive performance including difficulty in concentration and memory, absentmindedness, and the occurrence of mild hypnotic states known as 'long-eye' or the 'Antarctic stare'.[8]
Bill Spindler, documenting his extensive research on the Antarctic, attributes the effects of sensory deprivation, isolation, and maybe even the effect of extreme cold on the thyroid gland which can cause memory loss, sleepiness or sluggishness.[9]
See also
References
- ^ a b Oliver, Donna (1979). "Some Psychological Effects Of Isolation and Confinement In An Antarctic Winter-over Group". Dissertation. ProQuest 302983797.
- ^ a b Palinkas LA. "On the ice: Individual and group adaptation in Antarctica" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2012-06-23. Retrieved 2011-11-04.
- ^ PALINKAS, LAWRENCE A. "Association between the Polar T3 Syndrome and the Winter-Over Syndrome in Antarctica". NSF.org. Retrieved 11 April 2017.
- ^ "How cold is the Antarctic?". NIWA. 2007-02-28. Retrieved 2019-09-21.
- ^ Palinkas LA, Reed HL, Do NV (1997). "Association between the Polar T3 Syndrome and the Winter-Over Syndrome in Antarctica". Antarctic Journal of the United States Review 1997. Retrieved 2011-11-04.
- ^ Mullin, Captain Charles (October 1960). "Some Psychological Aspects of Isolated Antarctic Living". American Journal of Psychiatry. 117 (4): 323–325. doi:10.1176/ajp.117.4.323. PMID 13726749.
- ^ Palinkas, Lawrence (1992). "Going to Extremes: The Cultural Context of Stress, Illness, and Coping In Antarctica". Social Science and Medicine. 35 (5): 651–664. doi:10.1016/0277-9536(92)90004-A. PMID 1439916.
- ^ Cravalho, Mark Andrew (December 1996). "Toast on Ice: The Ethnopsychology of the Winter-over Experience in Antarctica". Ethos. 24 (4): 628–656. doi:10.1525/eth.1996.24.4.02a00030. ISSN 0091-2131.
- ^ "Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station (Bill Spindler's Antarctica)". www.southpolestation.com. Retrieved 2019-09-21.
This page was last edited on 18 January 2024, at 20:33