Bright light therapy of no benefit in teens with moderate or severe depression

In the treatment of adolescents with moderate or severe major depressive disorder (MDD), adding bright light therapy to psychiatric inpatient treatment as usual falls short of significantly reducing depressive symptoms when compared with placebo, as shown in a study.

The study included 227 youths between 12 and 8 years of age (mean age 15 years, 85.7 percent female) who were receiving psychiatric inpatient treatment for MDD. These participants were randomly assigned to receive additional treatment with up to 20 sessions of either bright light therapy (10,000 lux; n=116) or placebo red light (100 lux; n=111). A total of 151 participants completed the study.

At baseline, the mean Beck Depression Inventory-II (BDI-II) score was 37.3. BDI-II scores decreased significantly after 4 weeks overall (mean, −7.5, 95 percent confidence interval, −9.0 to −6.0; Hedges g, 0.71), with no significant difference between the bright light group and the placebo group.

Sixty-nine (31 percent) and 110 participants (49 percent) were lost to follow-up at 16 weeks and 28 weeks, respectively.

The most common adverse events were headache and dizziness. Ten serious adverse events occurred throughout the entire study, all of which were not considered related to study treatment. None of the participants died.

More research is needed to examine the efficacy of bright light therapy in less intensive treatment contexts and target patients with varying severity of depression and comorbidities.