Intervention: The intervention consisted of five weeks of daily sessions of light treatment in the participant’s home. Participants were advised to complete their session before 10:00 each morning, sitting at a distance of 40 cm with the head directed towards the light. The treatment sessions lasted for one hour a day (intensity: 10000 lux at 40 cm) while the placebo involved dim red light for ...

To determine whether circadian profiles of various plasma hormones are abnormal in patients with winter seasonal affective disorder (SAD), we obtained 24-hour profiles of plasma cortisol, prolactin, and thyrotropin in subsets of a sample of 22 depressed patients with SAD on and off light therapy and in subsets of a sample of 24 normal controls. Cortisol levels did not differ between patients an...

s | 83 included) and Mantel Haenszel-Risk Ratio of 1.31, 95% CI=1.01 to 1.69 (p=0.04) favouring active treatment over placebo according to response rates (12 studies included). Trials were patients merely had BLT as active treatment indicated a higher effect size (Hedges`s g= -0.51, 95%CI =-0.70 to -0.32 and p=0.001) than studies with concomitant psychopharmacological treatment (Hedges`s g= -0....

OBJECTIVE Although light therapy is effective in the treatment of seasonal affective disorder (SAD) and other mood disorders, only 53-79% of individuals with SAD meet remission criteria after light therapy. Perhaps more importantly, only 12-41% of individuals with SAD continue to use the treatment even after a previous winter of successful treatment. METHOD Participants completed surveys rega...

The circadian pacemaker is an endogenous clock that regulates oscillations in most physiological and psychological processes with a near 24-h period. In many species, this pacemaker triggers seasonal changes in behavior. The seasonality of symptoms and the efficacy of light therapy suggest involvement of the circadian pacemaker in seasonal affective disorder (SAD), winter type. In this study, c...

BACKGROUND The need to develop supplementary or alternative treatments for seasonal affective disorder (SAD) is underscored by the significant minority (47%) of SAD patients that is refractory to light therapy, the persistence of residual symptoms despite light treatment, and poor long-term compliance with light use. Because preliminary studies suggest that cognitive and behavioral factors are ...