Have you (as a person or a mental health professional for a client) ever tried light therapy for depression?

Posted: May 25th, 2010 | Author: admin | Filed under: light therapy for depression | Tags: , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments »

Did it work? What product did you use (brand and model if possible)? I’m going through major depression (on medication and seeing a therapist) and I just came across these full spectrum lamps that are believed to help alleviate SAD (Seasonal Affective Depression) symptoms. I’m wondering if these would help me even if I’m not suffering from SAD (I think my depression was a result of an extended highly-stressful period in my life and it could also be partially genetic since other family members have experienced / are experiencing it (two sisters.) Do you think that this light therapy device (Apollo Health GoLite P1 Blue Spectrum Light Therapy Device) is the best in the market since it’s one of the most expensive (if not the most expensive) out threre?


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2 Comments on “Have you (as a person or a mental health professional for a client) ever tried light therapy for depression?”

  1. 1 brendacott said at 7:41 pm on May 25th, 2010:

    Hold on a minute, before you go tearing off looking at light boxes (continued below). There is a far simpler way to do light therapy, which is even cheaper and so far (literature search 9/2005) has not been associated with hypomania or mania, the primary risk with a light box. And it’s cheaper too. It doesn’t work for everyone who responds to a light box, but if it did work for you, it’s clearly a better way to go.

    What is a "Dawn Simulator"? This is simply a device to gradually increase the light in your bedroom in the morning, while you are still asleep. Try this: close your eyes and look toward the light by which you’re reading this. You can tell where the light is, even with your eyes closed. A dawn simulator gradually turns on your bedside lamp in the morning, before you wake up, so that your retina (not you — you’re still asleep!) "sees" the light show up at the time you choose, increasing gradually just as natural sunlight does, over about 30-45 minutes. It’s really nothing more than a timer and a rheostat (a device to slowly change electrical current) hooked to your bedside lamp. Note that this approach does not require a "light box".
    Why is the gradual appearance of morning light potentially "antidepressant"? Think of it this way: the dawn simulator is trying to convince your brain that it’s still July out there (even in December). It turns out that your brain knows what season it is primarily by the time at which morning light appears (okay, it’s true, you can also tell the difference between snow, sleet, ice, freezing rain, and the warm summer sun; but evolutionarily, it looks like the brain’s timing was set by factors more closely associated with light.) We think that some people are built to slow down in the winter, something akin to hibernation. Think of a hibernating bear: sleepy, slow, hungry for carbohydrates, unhappy if awakened, grouchy, grrrh. Those are pretty close to the experience of "winter blues" for some people.

    So, if those peoples’ brain could be tricked into thinking that it really isn’t winter after all, might that prevent this shift toward a kind of half-hibernating way of dealing with the world? It appears that for some people, this actually works. In the recent research review , dawn simulator treatment was found to have an effect of similar size to light box treatment in 5 studies. In other words, the dawn simulator seemed to have as much power to improve mood as a light box.

    Dawn simulators are cheap, and there is no evidence for doing harm.

  2. 2 Sunshine79 said at 7:41 pm on May 25th, 2010:

    I am not a professional but my physician also told me I needed at least 30 minutes of sunlight a day. I suffer from depression and chronic fatigue syndrome and it seems to get worse in the winter. I am house bound most of the time and do not get enough light.

    I am not familiar with the specific light you mentioned. However, I asked my doctor about light alternatives Of course she would prefer that I get natural sun light. She did agree that anything from a small UV Light for the face would help. I asked about a suntan bed and she even agreed to that. I am aware that using too much, espcially a tanning bed, can cause more harm than good. But, this is where we have to use good judgement.

    I know of several people who have depression, chronic fatigue and fibromalgia that use these lights in different forms including the tanning bed and have had good results. I have not decided if I will get what you are talking about or the tanning bed. I realize that is to the extreme but with my fibromalgia the heat would help my entire body as well.

    I am not certain but there are some insurance companies that will pay for your type light with a doctors prescription. If you have not checked this out, you may want to consider it.
    I would love to know how it works for you becasue I cannot decide either. If I do not get the tanning bed, I am getting some type of light thearpy. It certainly cannot hurt and I believe it would be better than the lamp or even the light we get in our house through the glass.

    In fact I live on a lake in a house with too many windows and glass. However, the doctors says that light is too filtered and will not help unless I sat in front of a window all day every day. My house has lots of windows and doors and gets plenty of sunlight, so I cannot see how a lamp coming on early could help? I am not a professional but I do not believe that theory would work either??

    Hope this will help in some way even though I am not a Pro.

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