Health Dictionary
Reliable, easy-to-read patient information on common medical conditions — written in plain language, free of jargon, and grounded in current evidence. Browse the most frequent diagnoses, understand what they mean for everyday life, and learn which steps and questions help you have a focused conversation with your doctor.
Post travel depression
Introduction
Overview
Overview
Post travel depression, or PTD is an affective, or mood, disorder. Most PTD victims experience high levels of depression upon returning from a vacation or a place away from their ordinary lives. In most cases, PTD is short lived and sufferers return to normal stages in accordance to time spent away.
Background
Background
PTD comes on usually upon returning from a trip and settling back into a normal routine. Most of the time the trip is something positive and one suffers a depression from missing those good times. Symptoms include constantly looking at pictures of things/people missed, crying, no appetite, overeating, etc.
Treatment
Treatment
A number of treatments exist for PTD. The most common one is time. It usually takes 1.5 times the number of days away to be mostly/fully functional. So if you went one a trip for 8 days, it’d take about 12 days after returning to be fine again. PTD is at its lowest points when you are returning from somewhere while still on vacation, such as coming back from a trip to Europe in the middle of summer break. Other solutions for PTD is to be surrounded by positive people that include friends or family.
References
References
Editor-In-Chief: C. Michael Gibson, M.S., M.D. [1]