Chronotherapeutics in a psychiatric ward

Aug 11, 2007Sleep medicine reviews

Using timing-based treatments in a psychiatric hospital

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Abstract

Psychiatric chronotherapeutics may provide rapid therapeutic effects for depressed patients.

Chronotherapeutics involve controlled exposure to environmental stimuli to influence biological rhythms.
Light therapy and sleep deprivation have emerged as effective clinical interventions for depression.
These techniques target similar brain neurotransmitter systems and areas as antidepressant medications.
Effects of chronotherapeutics are rapid and transient, with potential stabilization through combination with other treatments.
Response and relapse rates for chronotherapeutics are comparable to those of traditional antidepressant drugs.
Good outcomes have been observed even in challenging cases like bipolar depression.

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Psychiatric chronotherapeutics is the controlled exposure to environmental stimuli that act on biological rhythms in order to achieve therapeutic effects in the treatment of psychiatric conditions. In recent years some techniques (mainly light therapy and sleep deprivation) have passed the experimental developmental phase and reached the status of powerful and affordable clinical interventions for everyday clinical treatment of depressed patients. These techniques target the same brain neurotransmitter systems and the same brain areas as do antidepressant drugs, and should be administered under careful medical supervision. Their effects are rapid and transient, but can be stabilised by combining techniques among themselves or together with common drug treatments. Antidepressant chronotherapeutics target the broadly defined depressive syndrome, with response and relapse rates similar to those obtained with antidepressant drugs, and good results are obtained even in difficult-to-treat conditions such as bipolar depression. Chronotherapeutics offer a benign alternative to more radical treatments of depression for the treatment of severe depression in psychiatric wards, but with the advantage of rapidity of onset.

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Chronotherapeutics in a psychiatric ward

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