Light Therapy: Good for What Ails You?

Topics: ADHD | Alternative treatments | Antidepressant Augmentation | Bipolar Depression | Bulimia Nervosa | Complementary treatments | Complimentary Medicine | Depression | Depressive Disorder | Light and Dark Therapy | Light therapy | Lightbox | PTSD | Seasonal Affective Disorder | Sexual Dysfunction | Sleep | Sleep Disorders | Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI)

There are several lifestyle changes with broad health benefits that we often encourage in our patients. Exercise, a healthy diet, sleep hygiene, and supportive social connections are near the top of the list, and bright daytime light might be worth adding. Light therapy is a standard treatment for seasonal affective disorder, and in this article we’ll

A Practical Guide to Light Therapy

Topics: Alternative treatments | Bipolar Disorder | Complementary treatments | Depression | Depressive Disorder | Light and Dark Therapy | Light therapy | Lightbox | natural treatments | Seasonal Affective Disorder

Outdoor living, morning light, evening darkness, and regular rhythms of sleep and waking all have one thing in common: They prevent depression. That’s the conclusion of many large epidemiologic studies, but for people who work indoors and wake up to dark winter mornings, this isn’t good news (Asai Y et al, J Affect Disord 2018;241:235–240). Here�

Ask the Editor - Jet Lag and Psychiatric Disorders: Plan for Prevention

Topics: Light and Dark Therapy | Sleep Disorders

Dear Dr. Aiken: I enjoyed Dr. Phelps’ discussion of blue-light blockers as a treatment for mania in the February issue. I’m wondering: Could these work for jet lag? Dr. Aiken: Jet lag happens when people fly across multiple time zones. The body’s internal clock gets out of sync with the outside signals of sunrise and sunset. The result is inso