"Polar madness" grips many people working at poles

By Will Dunham

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Working for long periods in the harsh and unforgiving conditions near the North and South Poles often causes people to suffer a stew of psychological symptoms dubbed "polar madness," scientists said on Wednesday.

The researchers studied the psychological effects on people from toiling in remote polar outposts, often for a year at a time, gleaning lessons they say might help prepare for lengthy human space missions in the future like a trip to Mars.

While some people on polar expeditions savor a gratifying sense of achievement, the researchers said, 40 to 60 percent of them may suffer negative effects like depression, sleep disruption, anger, irritability and conflict with co-workers.

About 5 percent of these people endure psychological disturbances severe enough to merit treatment with medication or therapy, the researchers said.

"Polar madness can take a variety of shapes," Lawrence Palinkas, a University of Southern California anthropologist who wrote the paper in the Lancet medical journal along with Peter Suedfeld of the University of British Columbia in Canada, said in a telephone interview.

"Some people may have difficulty adjusting to the light-dark cycles, and so they can never get a decent night sleep and experience a sleep disorder," he said. "Some people can get clinically depressed. Some people just can't handle the confinement, with seeing the same people day in and day out for extended periods of time."

The researchers interviewed people on polar expeditions, reviewed diaries of early polar explorers and examined data from countries maintaining permanent polar research stations.

Apart from anecdotal reports of "polar madness" and cabin fever, they said, little was documented about the psychological demands that people on polar expeditions face as the work in frigid and dangerous conditions surrounded by the same small group of people and isolated from family and friends.