World of Psychology

Study shows light therapy to effectively treat mood disorders, including SAD

By John M. Grohol, PsyD
Founder & Editor-in-Chief

Study shows light therapy to effectively treat mood disorders, including SAD

A study commissioned by the American Psychiatric Association and led by a psychiatrist at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine has found that light therapy effectively treats mood disorders, including seasonal affective disorder (SAD) and other depressive disorders.

A report of the study, which appeared April 1 in the American Journal of Psychiatry, also finds that the effects of light therapy, also known as phototherapy, are comparable to those found in many clinical studies of antidepressant drug therapy for these disorders.

The findings were based on a meta-analysis, a systematic statistical review of 20 randomized, controlled studies previously reported in the scientific literature. These represented only 12 percent of 173 published studies that the authors had originally considered for review.


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    Last reviewed: By John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on 4 Apr 2005
    Published on PsychCentral.com. All rights reserved.

APA Reference
Grohol, J. (2005). Study shows light therapy to effectively treat mood disorders, including SAD. Psych Central. Retrieved on February 14, 2012, from http://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2005/04/04/study-shows-light-therapy-to-effectively-treat-mood-disorders-including-sad/

 

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