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Arch Gen Psychiatry. 1998;55:863-864.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text and any section headings.

THE STUDIES of bright light therapy in the treatment of seasonal affective disorder (SAD; also known as winter depression) in this issue of the ARCHIVES^1-3 are sound studies that address important fundamental questions. Is bright light therapy more than a placebo effect? Is morning bright light therapy more effective than evening bright light?

IS BRIGHT LIGHT THERAPY MORE THAN A PLACEBO EFFECT?

Since bright light therapy was introduced as a treatment for SAD in the early 1980s, many have been concerned about the adequacy of the control conditions used in the treatment studies. Bright light therapy poses a special problem for blinding the patients to the active treatment: the patients see the bright light box. During the 1980s, the usual placebo condition was a light box of lower intensity, often of a different color. A pooled analysis of these data showed that bright light is superior to dim light controls.⁴ However, expectations of the subjects sometimes predicted the clinical . . . [Full Text of this Article]

IS MORNING BRIGHT LIGHT THERAPY MORE EFFECTIVE THAN EVENING BRIGHT LIGHT?

CONCLUSION


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