Phototherapy of seasonal affective disorder. Time of day and suppression of melatonin are not critical for antidepressant effects.
Arch Gen Psychiatry
; 43(9): 870-5, 1986 Sep.
Article
en En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-3753164
ABSTRACT
Seasonal affective disorder is characterized by recurring cycles of fall-winter depression and spring-summer hypomania (or euthymia). In winter, depressed patients with seasonal affective disorder respond to daily treatments with five to six hours of bright artificial light in two to three days. They relapse two to three days after light is withdrawn. In this study carefully controlled experimental conditions were used to determine whether phototherapy acts via a photoperiodic mechanism in which the timing of light is critical for its therapeutic effect. Photoperiodism is a common regulatory mechanism in animal seasonal rhythms and depends for its effect on light-induced changes in the pattern of nocturnal melatonin secretion. The results reported herein of "skeleton photoperiod" experiments indicate that the efficacy of phototherapy may not depend on its timing or its effect on melatonin secretion.
Buscar en Google
Colección:
01-internacional
Banco de datos:
MEDLINE
Asunto principal:
Fototerapia
/
Estaciones del Año
/
Ritmo Circadiano
/
Trastorno Depresivo
Tipo de estudio:
Diagnostic_studies
/
Evaluation_studies
Límite:
Female
/
Humans
/
Male
Idioma:
En
Revista:
Arch Gen Psychiatry
Año:
1986
Tipo del documento:
Article