ANTIDEPRESSANT EFFECTS OF LIGHT IN SEASONAL AFFECTIVE DISORDER AND NORMAL CONTROL

我们以前已经表明，眼睛暴露在明亮的光线下，但不是 普通的室内灯光可以逆转患者冬季的抑郁症状 季节性情感障碍（SAD） 到目前为止，至少有40个 SAD的对照光处理研究。 尽管如此，批评者 仍然认为对照治疗可能是不可信的， 这可能解释了两种药物之间疗效的显著差异， 活性和对照治疗。 由于大多数光治疗研究 到目前为止，已经使用全光谱光的活动条件， 重新审视安慰剂问题的一种新方法是根据 不同的颜色。 基础科学研究表明， 光感受器对绿色波长区域的光最敏感。 因此，我们假设绿色荧光灯将是一种 有效的抗抑郁治疗SAD。 根据对动物的研究， 假设红灯是不活跃的，因此可以作为 合适的控制。 我们和其他人之前的研究表明， 红灯会产生对积极结果的强烈期望， 将满足良好控制治疗所需的其他参数- 可扩展性。 研究中红光和绿色光 比较将是：1）帮助识别那些重要的光感受器 在抗抑郁药对光的反应; 2）进一步澄清是否 紫外线是其抗抑郁作用所必需的。 如果这是 如果不是这样，则可以从光波导中去除这种潜在的有毒波长。 治疗无明显疗效损失。 在过去的一年里，我们在一项交叉研究中治疗了14名SAD患者， 绿色和红色荧光灯，每天早晨给药两小时， 比较了 绿色被证明上级红光，尽管与红光相当。 对这两种光的先验期望。 由于绿色光源 不含紫外线成分，这一发现提供了额外的证据， 紫外线对光疗的抗抑郁作用并不重要。

We have previously shown that exposure of the eyes to bright light, but not ordinary room light can reverse the winter depressive symptoms in patients with Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD). By now there are at least 40 controlled light treatment studies for SAD. Despite this, however, critics continue to argue that control treatments might have been implausible, which might account for the significant differences in efficacy between the active and control treatments. Since most light treatment studies performed to date have used full-spectrum light for the active condition, a novel way to re-examine the placebo issue would be to administer light of different colors. Basic science studies have shown that rod and cone photoreceptors are most sensitive to light in the green wavelength region. We therefore hypothesized that green fluorescent light would be an effective antidepressant treatment in SAD. Based on studies in animals, we hypothesized that red light would be inactive and would therefore serve as a suitable control. Previous studies by ourselves and others have shown that red light generates strong expectations of a positive outcome, which would fulfil the other parameter necessary for a good control treatment - plausibility. Additional benefits of a study in which red and green light were compared would be: 1) to help identify those photoreceptors important in the antidepressant response to light; 2) to clarify further whether ultraviolet light is necessary for its antidepressant effects. If this is not so, then this potentially toxic wavelength can be removed from the treatment without significant loss of efficacy. This past year we treated 14 SAD patients in a crossover study in which green and red fluorescent light, administered for two hours each morning, were compared. Green light proved to be superior to red despite equivalent a priori expectations of both types of light. Since the green light source contained no UV component, this finding provides additional evidence that UV light is not critical for the antidepressant effects of phototherapy.