Light Therapy and Fluoxetine Are Equally Effective for Winter Depression (press release)

Breaking News for Friday, November 21, 2008 Busted! NPR Radio Doc Caught with Undisclosed Financial Ties to Big Pharma Antidepressant Drugs Destroy DNA of Sperm Bush to End Protection of Endangered Animals Before Leaving Office Type-2 Diabetes Causes Severely Impaired Brain Processing Speed $25,000 "Bright Christmas" Donation Campaign Announced by Mike Adams' BetterLifeGoods.com      See all Breaking News... FREE Natural Health Newsletter Receive natural health product reviews, recommendations and alerts. Instant download of 20+ free health reports and exclusive interviews. Join over 1.2 million monthly readers. Unsubscribe anytime, email privacy guaranteed Products Related to This Article* • Free download: Selling Sickness (summary) Read the best book on disease mongering for learning the truth about Big Pharma * Recommended by the Health Ranger. See more recommendations on right → Articles Related to This Article: • Interview: Larry Pederson and the LiteBook portable phototherapy device • Light therapy stops tooth loss in dental patients with periodontal disease • Heal Yourself With Sunlight (Part 1 of Timeless Secrets of Health and Rejuvenation)

The findings are presented in the article, “The CAN-SAD Study: Randomized Controlled Trial of the Effectiveness of Light Therapy and Fluoxetine in Patients With Winter Seasonal Affective Disorder” by Raymond W. Lam, M.D., and colleagues of the Mood Disorder Centre at Vancouver Coastal Health Research Institute and the University of British Columbia. The rates of remission were 50 percent and 54 percent of enrolled patients for bright light and fluoxetine, respectively.

Although light therapy and antidepressants are each more effective than placebo, there have been few direct comparisons of them. In addition, this study was double-blind—all participants received light and a capsule each day. One group received low-intensity “placebo” light in addition to fluoxetine. The other group received a placebo capsule and were exposed to 10,000-lux white fluorescent light for 30 minutes a day. Patients judged to have serious risk of suicide were excluded from the study.

“This study gives patients with a common, but significantly debilitating mood disorder a choice between two effective treatments,” said Robert Freedman, M.D., AJP editor-in-chief.

Light therapy showed two advantages over fluoxetine. It worked faster, having a greater effect at one week. It also produced less agitation and less sleep disturbance. However, the overall dropout rate and the dropout rate due to side effects did not differ between treatments.

Winter depression is the most common type of seasonal mood disorder. Epidemiological studies show prevalence rates as high as 2.7 percent in higher latitudes. The symptoms may begin in the fall and include profound lack of energy, excessive sleeping, and overeating, in addition to depressed mood. Impaired occupational or social functioning is common.

This study was funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) and a CIHR/Wyeth Postdoctoral Fellowship Award. Light boxes were supplied by Uplift Technologies.
Get articles like this delivered to you FREE in our popular email newsletter

Related CounterThink Cartoons:

Related Articles: • Interview: Larry Pederson and the LiteBook portable phototherapy device • Light therapy stops tooth loss in dental patients with periodontal disease • Heal Yourself With Sunlight (Part 1 of Timeless Secrets of Health and Rejuvenation)	Take Action: Support NaturalNews.com Email this article to a friend Share this article on: NewsVine | digg | del.icio.us Permalink to this article: http://www.NaturalNews.com/019812.html Reprinting this article: Non-commercial OK, cite NaturalNews.com with clickable link. Embed article link: (copy HTML code below): <a href = "http://www.NaturalNews.com/019812.html">Light Therapy and Fluoxetine Are Equally Effective for Winter Depression (press release)</a>