Does Blue monday exist?

Question

Blue Monday is supposedly the most depressing day of the year, it's a Monday in beginning of January. Several news pages reports about this.

"Blue Monday" said to be the most miserable day of the year

Monday, January 6, 2014, is what some psychological researchers call "Blue Monday."

Millions are returning to work after time off for the holidays and they're facing the facts -- the big price tag that came with all the gifts.

Myfox.com

Feeling down? Blame it on Blue Monday: Today is the day we feel at our lowest ebb

• Woes include travel chaos, feeling poor after Christmas and lack of daylight
• Major drop in motivation comes from continued winter darkness

How are you feeling today? Chances are, not that great... Because this morning you woke up on what has come to be known as ‘Blue Monday’ - the day of the year on which most of us feel at our lowest ebb. PUBLISHED: 00:55 GMT, 21 January 2013

Dailymail

'Maandag 20 januari is deprimerendste dag van het jaar'

Een Britse psycholoog heeft maandag 20 januari aangewezen als 'Blue Monday', oftewel de deprimerendste dag van het jaar.

Nu.nl

Translation: Monday 20th january is the most depressing day of the year. British psychologists says that Monday 20th January, "Blue Monday" is the most depressing day of the whole year.

Blue Monday is a name given to a date in January stated, as part of a publicity campaign by Sky Travel, to be the most depressing day of the year. However, the whole concept is considered pseudoscience, with its formula derided by scientists as nonsense.

Wikipedia article on topic

It seems to be reported yearly on news pages about this topic. On the other hand they seem to report different dates as blue Monday, and reference "psychologist" without any source to it. Wikipedia article on Blue Monday calls it pseudoscience, so what is it?

Answer 1

No.

Ben Goldacre - Guardian science writer and proprietor of the Bad Science blog - wrote an article entitled "Tell Me Now How do I Feel" in Jan 2011 and mentioned it again on Twitter. He also wrote an earlier, well-referenced, article in 2009: "'Blue Monday' is churnalism, beware any journalist who puffs it"

To quote:

Antidepressant prescriptions have been tracked a few times (they peak in spring, or in February, May and October). GP consultations for depression peak in May-June, and in November-January (you get the same pattern with osteoarthritis consultations, oddly). Admissions for depression peak in autumn, or spring and summer, while 8 studies found no seasonal variation at all.

and

A 1974 study on all suicides in North Carolina (3,672) and admissions to their Veterans Hospital Psychiatry Service (3,258) from 1965 to 1971 showed no seasonal variation. A 1976 Ontario study found peaks of suicide and admissions for depression in spring and autumn.