Am J Psychiatry 1994; 151:1081-1083
Copyright © 1994 by American Psychiatric Association
Phototherapy for seasonal affective disorder: a blind comparison of three different schedules
B Lafer, GS Sachs, LA Labbate, A Thibault and JF Rosenbaum
Clinical Psychopharmacology Unit, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston 02114.
The authors investigated the outcome of an alternating time schedule versus
two fixed schedules (either morning or evening) of bright light treatment
for seasonal affective disorder. The subjects were 31 patients who met
DSM-III-R criteria for major depression with a seasonal pattern. No
statistically significant difference was observed among patients in the
three groups for response criteria after 1 week of treatment. These results
support the use of more flexible phototherapy schedules.
