Exposure to bright light may help treat older patients with major depression [a mental state characterized by a pessimistic sense of inadequacy and a despondent lack of activity] , according to the findings of a Dutch randomized trial.
In the first of its kind study, a team of psychiatrists and neuroscientists from several Netherlands universities found that a treatment, called bright light therapy helped diminish the effects of depression [a mental state characterized by a pessimistic sense of inadequacy and a despondent lack of activity] in older people. The therapy produced a significant improvement in mood and sleep of elderly people with major depression. In the three weeks of bright light therapy specially designed light boxes are used to treat the depressed patients.
Study details
To reach their findings, the research team led by Dr. Ritsaert Lieverse, MD, of the department of psychiatry at VU University Medical Center in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, evaluated the effects of three weeks of bright light therapy in 89 adults over age 60 diagnosed with major depressive disorder (MDD), according to WebMD.com.
The study subjects were randomized to a three-week course of bright-light therapy or a placebo exposure of filtered dim light, both delivered with a specially-designed light box at home.
Of the participants, 42 got a bright blue light to take home, and 47 got a dim red light (placebo treatment). In both groups, patients were instructed to sit beside it for an hour each morning over three weeks.
Study findings
After three weeks of treatment, the researchers found that bright light therapy improved depressive symptoms by 43 percent in more than half — 58 percent — of the patients who completed the experiment, compared with the 36 percent improvement found in 34 percent of the group receiving placebo treatment, the health website reports.
The benefits seem to last even after the treatment discontinued.
After the treatment ended, researchers found that the bright light therapy continued to improve symptoms of depression by as much as 54 percent in older adults with depression, compared to 33 percent in the placebo group.
Other benefits displayed
The bright light therapy recipients’ levels of the stress hormone cortisol also decreased, as well as their sleep quality also improved, the results of the study showed.
In addition, the bright light treatment group also got out of bed earlier than the patients who received dim light.
"We showed that bright-light therapy had beneficial effects in elderly patients with nonseasonal major depressive disorder and found indirect support for the contention that therapeutic effects may in part be mediated by enhancements of circadian system functioning," MedPage Today quoted Lieverse and colleagues as saying.
"These results support inclusion of chronotherapeutic strategies in the treatment options for nonseasonal major depressive disorder in elderly patients. Bright light treatment may provide a viable alternative for patients who refuse, resist, or do not tolerate antidepressant treatment," the team concluded.
Lieverse and co-authors reported their findings in Jan. 3 issue of the prestigious Archives of General Psychiatry.