Live Blogging on Light Therapy for SAD

Today I am live blogging about Light Therapy, which is from one of the sources for my research paper on the illness called Seasonal Affective Disorder. Light Therapy is often the treatment given to patients that have this disorder to improve their mood. This blog summarizes one of the chapters called Light Therapy by Timo Partonen from the Book “Seasonal Affective Disorder practice and research”, published in 2001.

3:43 PM: To start off this paragraph discusses how they have certain specifications for light therapy, which include “the intensity, duration, and timing of daily light exposure” (page 65). These parameters make sense because certain patients may have a more severe cause of SAD than others.

3:46 PM: Light therapy came about when research in the first experiment in 1981 provided that “light of high intensity was required to suppress the melatonin secretion in humans “, which developed the idea that they can potentially extend “the period of day in winter to correspond with that of summer” (Page 65). I think it is crazy that this light therapy idea is so new and has not been around for long at all.

3:53 PM: This next paragraph discusses how light therapy “has been conducted by researchers around the world. Although there are limitations of design to these studies, several qualitative overviews have concluded that bright-light therapy is an effective treatment…” (Page 66). I am not surprised that this lights have been shown to be effective to these patients, especially because of the major addiction people have to tanning beds, which most likely gives off a similar emotion.

4:00 PM: The dosage for light therapy is “measured with the intensity and duration of the exposure” (Page 66). One major thing that was noted in this chapter was also the importance of the distance away the patient is from the light. I think that it is so interesting that people who live in rainier and cloudier climates, as mentioned in the reading, tend to use these lights throughout the entire year on a regular basis!

4:04 PM: There has been controversy over what time of day is the best time to undergo this light therapy. Partonen talks about how “controlled trials have found that the morning is the most effective time for light therapy, whereas several studies have shown efficacy following light exposure in the evening or in the middle of the day”(Page 67). I personally think that the morning would be the most effective time because it will start the day off on a good note.

4:09 PM: The original form of light that was used in experiments was fluorescent light, but in later trails it was found that “white light may have greater efficacy than those producing light of one colour or a limited range of wavelengths” (Page 67). It was also mentioned that fluorescent light should be avoided because of the “long term toxicity” (Page 67). I think this can be a dangerous issue with light therapy if some of these lamps can give off small amount of radiation, unless it is a white light.

4:15 PM: It has been stated that these bright lights do no cause and harm. Though, some side effects include “eye irritation, headache, and nausea” (Page 68). I think that these effects could definitely form from over use of these lamps, mainly because the percentage of these effects range from only 10 to 16 percent of users. Overall, these lamps seem to be very effective and do not cause significant harm to patients.

4:20 PM: The overall risks for this treatment is also slim but it has been found that “photochemical damage cannot be ruled out when the lights are being used for long periods” (Page 69). Patients that may be at risk for these issues tend to have already have “progressive retinal conditions or risk factors for light toxicity” (page 69). I think that because patients do not have to use these lights for more than 2 or 3 hours a day, is one of the main reasons this does not cause harm to the eyes.

4:30 PM: A common assumption that has been made with light therapy is that it can simply be the placebo effect. This is mainly because “the ideal standard of a double-blind design is impossible in studies with light therapy…” (Page 69). I think that because of this statement, there will always be doubt from doctors, patients and the rest of society in believing that this light therapy is 100 percent effective.

4:34 PM: Some ways to help treat yourself along with light therapy is through “increased sleeping, increased eating…” (Page 69). I think that making sure you are an overall healthy person can definitely help a person’s mood significantly, even if they don’t have SAD.

4:39 PM: “The optimum setting for the light therapy is to have the patient sitting…for the period of time needed to reduce symptoms and induce remission” (Page 69-70). I think that it is overall really important or patients to dedicate time out of their day to sit under these lights, even though that may seem to be a pretty big commitment. I can’t imagine finding two hours in the morning to purely sit under a light.

4:45 PM: Lights are now being offered in stores and recommend light sources that “emit no ultraviolet radiation” (Page 71). I think that is a very important part of using lights, and educating these patients on how to appropriately use the lamps is essential.

4:49: One great advancement is the dawn stimulator, which allows “…the patient to sleep during the treatment. The device has a lamp and an alarm clock that is programmed to increase the room illumination slowly within 30 minutes, while subjects are sleeping, thus simulating a summer dawn during a winter morning” (Page 72). I most definitely think that this advancement is a valuable one because it will start the patient’s day off on the right note, and allow this treatment to feel natural.

Overall this chapter had a lot of information and detail on all the different angles of light therapy from the medical and scientific perspective. I think this chapter did a good job in portraying how light therapy is an effective treatment and that it does play a significant roll in recovery. It touched base on the efficiency, the dosage, the time of day, the adverse effects, the risks, the outcome, the placebo effect, and the dawn simulator. All of these different sub-categories of light therapy provided valuable information that supported the authors view on light therapy. From this, I learned that light therapy is one of the most effective treatments for people with this disorder despite of how strange it may be.