The pace of research on bright light therapy has accelerated over the last few years and recently two meta analyses of this research have been published one in the american journal of.
Light therapy for depression research.
Four research based articles were included.
Light therapy for anxiety and depression is exactly what it sounds like.
Light therapy lamps bulbs and devices can help you be more productive and sleep better especially if you experience sad.
It s a white light used to mimic the effects of sunlight.
Sad is a type of depression that occurs at a certain time each year usually in the fall or winter.
A 2018 research trial put light therapy solidly on the map for bipolar depression even though not to the point where light is replacing antidepressants yet.
Light therapy is a way to treat seasonal affective disorder sad and certain other conditions by exposure to artificial light.
As such it s commonly used to treat seasonal affective disorder people who experience their depression and or anxiety worsen during the winter months due to the lack of sunlight.
Seasonal affective disorder sad is a type of depression that typically occurs each year during fall and winter.
Thalen et al 1995 ed.
Other studies have found modest or no clear benefit to bright light therapy for nonseasonal depression mackert et al 1990.
The response to light therapy is quite rapid often within a week or two which is more rapid than the response to antidepressant drugs or psychotherapy he said.
Two studies used home based individual light therapy and the other two were conducted in the long term care facilities.
But when the light was used instead at midday the same patients often got good outcomes.
Szadoczky et al 1991.
But for some people light therapy may be more effective when combined with another sad treatment such as an antidepressant or psychological counseling psychotherapy.
All four study results showed that bright light therapy significantly reduced depressive symptoms of older adults with nonseasonal depression.
A 2008 systematic review concluded that 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 or eventually as stand alone treatment for specific subgroups of depressed patients.