EXTRAOCULAR LIGHT TREATMENT

季节性情感障碍(SAD，冬季抑郁症)是一种相对常见的抑郁症形式。SAD的标准疗法是，在有症状的发作期间，每天早上暴露在强光下半小时或更长时间，对大多数患者来说非常有效，但几乎不方便，对一些人来说治疗不足，对某些视网膜疾病的患者可能不安全。最近有研究表明，照射在人的膝盖后部而不是眼睛上的光可以改变昼夜节律：由于光治疗SAD可能通过这种改变起作用，这种眼外光可能是治疗SAD的有效方法。如果有一种轻便、紧凑、可穿戴的眼外光光源，并被证明对SAD有效，那么强光疗法的一些重大局限性可能会被克服。患者可以在进行日常活动的同时接受治疗。这种疗法可以在对昼夜相移最敏感的睡眠期间应用，比传统的强光疗法更有效。最后，眼外光线不会使眼睛暴露在明亮的光线下，而这可能是某些视网膜疾病的禁忌。该项目将生产一种使用发光二极管将光线照射到这一区域的可穿戴设备，将在安慰剂对照的双盲随机试验中测试该设备治疗SAD的有效性，并探索其在睡眠和清醒时间的有效性。建议的商业应用：如果建议的设备在治疗SAD方面有效，一种简单、廉价、方便的设备将可以为数百万患有这种疾病的人提供商业用途。这种装置还可以用于治疗其他季节性精神障碍、昼夜节律紊乱，如睡眠综合征，在某些情况下还可以治疗非季节性抑郁症。

Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD, winter depression) is a relatively common form of depression. The standard therapy for SAD, exposure to bright light for one half hour or more each morning during symptomatic episodes, is highly effective for most patients but is hardly convenient, therapeutically inadequate for some, and possibly unsafe for patients with certain retinal diseases. Light applied to the back of the human knee, rather than to the eye, has recently been shown to shift circadian rhythms: since light treatment for SAD may act through such shifts, such extraocular light may be an effective therapy for SAD. If a lightweight, compact, wearable source for extraocular light were available and shown to be effective in SAD, some of the significant limitations of bright light therapy might be overcome. Patients might receive therapy while engaged in their usual activities. Such therapy might be applied during sleep, when sensitivity to circadian phase shifts is maximal, and be more effective than conventional bright light therapy. Lastly, extraocular light would not expose the eye to bright light which might be contraindicated in certain retinal disorders. This project will produce a wearable unit for applying light to this area using light-emitting diodes, will test the device's efficacy in treating SAD in a placebo-controlled, double blind randomized trial, and explore its efficacy in sleep as well as waking hours. PROPOSED COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS: If the proposed device is effective in treating SAD, a simple, inexpensive, convenient unit would be commercially available for millions of individuals who suffer from this disorder. Such a unit could also be useful in treatment of other seasonal psychiatric disorders, circadian rhythm disorders such as sleep syndromes, and in some instances non-seasonal depression.