Light Therapy for Treating Depression
Has there been any development in researching new ways of treating different types of depression? It is said that over the last few years, there has been a great number of diagnosed and treated cases of depression and seasonal affective disorder. And in the course of looking for a cure to this, a new alternative treatment has been brought to existence to address the issue on the aforementioned disorder. Light therapy is the latest among the alternative treatments for depression.
Light therapy uses “light boxes”; these light boxes provide 10,000 lux of artificial light. Light therapy, which is also referred to as phototherapy, usually consists of exposure to particular wavelengths of light depending how much is being prescribed for a certain amount of time.
Light therapy is known to be effective on persons who are experiencing seasonal affective disorder. This mood disorder is usually known as winter depression or winter blues. This type of depression actually can be experienced by the patient repeatedly during the winter season. The feeling of depression can be experienced year after year. On the other hand, aside from seasonal affective disorder, light boxes were proven to help other types of depression as well.
The good thing about light boxes is that they do not cause skin damage compared to a variety of light therapies, such as those that make use of ultraviolet light. Ultraviolet light is known to damage the skin with prolonged exposure to it. Blue light treatment is somehow associated with light box treatment, although compared to blue light, the light box gives a quicker therapeutic response to the individual who uses it. On the other hand, using blue light therapy to treat depression could be as responsive as using light boxes on younger patients. However, it has been found that blue light therapy is not an adequate depression treatment for older patients.
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