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Will light brighten the future of the depressed patient?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 September 2015

R.H. Van Den Hoofdakker  and
M.C.M. Gordijn
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Extract

The present explosive growth of interest in the therapeutic possibilities of exposure to light was triggered by a patient, Herbert Kern. He suffered from episodic depressive and manic complaints and discovered, by registering these over the years, a seasonal pattern in their occurrence. Discussions with scientists of the NIMH resulted in his participation in a bright light-treatment experiment when he was depressed in the winter of 1980-1981. He recovered.

Next, the same group of investigators defined the criteria for a new syndrome, Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD): a history of major affective disorder (according to the Research Diagnostic Criteria), at least two consecutive years in which the depressions have occurred during fall or winter and remitted in the following spring or summer, and the absence of any clear-cut seasonally changing psychosocial variable, such as work, stress and so on.

Keywords

Light therapySADnon-seasonal major depression
Type
Research Article
Information
Acta Neuropsychiatrica , Volume 9 , Issue 2 , June 1997 , pp. 71 - 76
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1997

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References

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