Efficacy of light therapy in nonseasonal depression: A systematic review

Oct 24, 2007Journal of affective disorders

Effectiveness of light therapy for depression not related to seasons: a review

AI simplified

Circadian Biology on OpenScience ↗PubMed ↗DOI ↗

Abstract

Fifteen out of 62 identified reports support the efficacy of light therapy as an additional treatment for nonseasonal depression.

Light therapy may enhance the effects of antidepressants in treating nonseasonal depression.
Trials using light therapy alone produced mixed outcomes.
Most studies had limitations such as small sample sizes and inadequate control of blindness.
Publication bias could have influenced the perceived effectiveness of light therapy.

AI simplified

BACKGROUND: The efficacy of bright light therapy is well established for winter depression but its status in depression without seasonal pattern is unclear.

METHODS: We systematically evaluated available data on the efficacy of light therapy in nonseasonal depression.

RESULTS: We identified 62 reports among which 15 met our predefined selection criteria. The available data show evidence for the efficacy of light therapy as an adjuvant treatment to antidepressants. Trials that evaluated light therapy alone (without antidepressants) in nonseasonal depression yielded inconsistent results.

LIMITATIONS: Most of the studies extracted poorly controlled the issue of blindness and were limited by small sample sizes. Publication bias may have distorted our estimation of the effect of light therapy.

CONCLUSIONS: Overall, bright light therapy is an excellent candidate for inclusion into the therapeutic inventory available for the treatment of nonseasonal depression today, as adjuvant therapy to antidepressant medication. Future clinical trials of light therapy should distinguish homogenous subgroups of depressed patients in order to evaluate whether light therapy may eventually be considered as stand-alone treatment for specific subgroups of patients with nonseasonal depression.

Full Text

Full text is available at the source.

View full text (XML) ↗View full text ↗

Efficacy of light therapy in nonseasonal depression: A systematic review

Abstract

Full Text

You found one interesting study. We’ll send the next 7.

what lands in your inbox each week:

Recent issues from the circadian biology brief