Light Relief Therapy

Light Therapy For Depression

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5 Comments on “Any experience with the 'bright light therapy'?”

1. 
   1 ashlypradhan said at 8:50 pm on March 22nd, 2010:

   Yea.. Its when u wake up at 12 noon and get the sun in your eye

2. 
   2 prettygreeneyes said at 8:50 pm on March 22nd, 2010:

   To be honest, its a little inconvenient having to sit on front of a light box for a hour at the same time each day but it does work. The herbal drug st johns wort works very well for SAD too, and all you do is take a tablet a day. Its a good altervative if the light box is too time consuming.

3. 
   3 TP said at 8:50 pm on March 22nd, 2010:

   I have never did bright light therapy, but I will go to a tanning booth in the winter for the same reason/effects and I feel that it helps improve my overall self

4. 
   4 enigma q said at 8:50 pm on March 22nd, 2010:

   ur referin to seasonal affectiv disorder,,,,
   be careful,intense lites coud hav long term physical and
   psychic bad effects
   i do energy healing work

5. 
   5 Mayah said at 8:50 pm on March 22nd, 2010:

   Light therapy, or phototherapy, is the administration of doses of bright light in order to treat a variety of sleep and mood disorders. It is most commonly used to re-regulate the body’s internal clock and/or relieve depression.

   When used to treat SAD or other forms of depression, light therapy has several advantages over prescription antidepressants. Light therapy tends to work faster than medications, alleviating depressive symptoms within two to 14 days after beginning light therapy as opposed to an average of four to six weeks with medication. And unlike antidepressants, which can cause a variety of side effects from nausea to concentration problems, light therapy is extremely well tolerated. Some side effects are possible with light but are generally not serious enough to cause discontinuation of the therapy. There are several other different applications for light therapy, including:
   • Full-spectrum/UV light therapy for disorders of the skin. A subtype of light therapy that is often prescribed to treat skin diseases, rashes, and jaundice.
   • Cold laser therapy. The treatment involves focusing very low-intensity beams of laser light on the skin, and is used in laser acupuncture to treat a myriad of symptoms and illnesses, including pain, stress, and tendinitis.
   • Colored light therapy. In colored light therapy, different colored filters are applied over a light source to achieve specific therapeutic effects. The colored light is then focused on the patient, either with a floodlight which covers the patient with the colored light, or with a beam of light that is focused on the area of the illness.
   • Back of knee light therapy. A 1998 report published in the journal Science reported that the area behind the human knee known as the popliteal region contains photoreceptors that can help to adjust the body’s circadian rhythms. The authors of the study found that they could manipulate circadian rhythms by focusing a bright light on the popliteal region. Further studies are needed to determine the efficacy of this treatment on disorders such as SAD and jet lag.

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