Treatment of seasonal affective disorder with green light and red light

Article Abstract:

Seasonal affective disorder is the diagnosis when there have been three or more episodes of depression over the course of three separate years, which occurred during a particular two-month seasonal cycle (e.g., between the beginning of November and the end of December). Research has shown that treatment consisting of exposure to white light during seasonal depression provides more symptom relief than treatment with red or blue light. A study was conducted to assess the effects of green versus red light. Green was chosen because the eye is more sensitive to green wavelengths than any other bands of light. Ten women and four men diagnosed with seasonal affective disorder completed the experiment. All had normal color vision. Seven were assigned to one week of green light therapy followed by one week of red light therapy, while the other seven were treated in the reverse order. Treatment consisted of two hours of light therapy in the morning. Treatment effects were measured by a depression scale. Patients did not know which colors they would be treated with prior to the onset of the experiment. Patients who received the red light-treatment first showed some improvement in depression scores during both color conditions (slightly more improvement in the green condition). However, patients who received green light-treatment first demonstrated a much greater response during green light treatment and were significantly less depressed after both light treatments than those first treated with red light. Results indicate that beneficial green light treatment effects are similar to those of white light, and stronger than those of red light. This supports the idea that photoreceptors in the retina may mediate an antidepressant response in seasonal affective disorder. (Consumer Summary produced by Reliance Medical Information, Inc.)

Health aspects, Methods, Seasonal affective disorder, Red, Phototherapy, Green

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ECT for major depression in four patients infected with human immunodeficiency virus

Article Abstract:

Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT), commonly known as electric shock treatment, was used to treat four persons infected with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) who had severe depressions. One homosexual man with AIDS who was suicidal and believed he was a bad person received 12 ECT treatments, which seemed to resolve all his depressive symptoms. A second homosexual man with serious suicidal behavior had similar results from ECT. A bisexual man was seriously depressed for one month after learning of his positive HIV status. He was also suicidal and thought he was being punished by the devil. After ECT was begun, this patient's depression and other psychotic symptoms slowly cleared. A women who became severely depressed after learning of her positive HIV status was hospitalized twice for depression and delusions. These symptoms quickly resolved with ECT treatments. Each case received the normal course of ECT, six to 12 treatments, and no side effects were reported. None of these patients had neurological problems and their depressions were probably not a result of their HIV infections. Drug intervention had been the primary treatment, which was not successful in any of these cases. All of these people were placed in drug maintenance programs after the course of ECT was completed. (Consumer Summary produced by Reliance Medical Information, Inc.)

Psychological aspects, Case studies, AIDS patients, Electroconvulsive therapy, Electroshock

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