Does Blue Light Therapy Work For Depression

If not it may not help your depression.

Does blue light therapy work for depression.

While light therapy is not meant to cure a seasonal affective disorder or any other depression or condition it is meant to ease your symptoms in a more natural non medicative route. Light therapy is also known as bright light therapy or phototherapy. Light boxes used to treat sad should filter out most or all uv light. In a study with 52 adults with sad who received morning therapy for 10 days blue light therapy was as effective as a bright light in diminishing the perception of depression symptoms 15.

Light therapy is thought to affect brain chemicals linked to mood and sleep easing sad symptoms. These lamps give off light that is similar to the light from sunshine. Ishida works in kobe japan in the brain science department of kobe university s medical school. Using a light therapy box may also help with other types of depression sleep disorders and other conditions.

Bright light therapy is approved to treat seasonal affective depression sad. The authors reviewed three studies of light therapy for nonseasonal depression reporting an average effect size of 0 53 a medium effect which is similar to results seen in antidepressant. For instance studies have found that white light therapy is more effective at treating symptoms of depression than. Some light therapy lamps are designed for skin disorders not for sad.

The study doesn t change the use of light therapy in people for conditions including sleep. Other light therapies have been used to help with some of the conditions above. Lamps used for skin disorders primarily emit ultraviolet uv light and could damage your eyes if used incorrectly. Both light therapy and the combination of light therapy and medication were more effective than placebo.

In its simplest form it serves as a partial solution to the problem especially for those with seasonal affective disorder. Blue light therapy while it may take a combination of treatments to overcome depression one safe option is to use blue light therapy.