|
Seasonal Affective Disorder
Light Therapy for "Winter Blues" Getting More Press
Derived from Tanning Trends, February 2001
Seasonal Affective Disorder - now recognized as an illness affecting 38 million Americans every winter - is getting more press this year. Dr. Rosenthal, the Georgetown University researcher who was part of a group that first coined the term "SAD" in 1984 is finally being recognized as a legitimate researcher investigating a legitimate disease. Rosenthal was a pioneer in investigating the usage of bright full-spectrum "light therapy" to treat Seasonal Affective Disorder patients.
Rosenthal originally from South Africa came to New York City in 1976 for a psychiatric residency. After noticing he was sluggish and "reluctant to get out of bed" in the winter months, Rosenthal postulated that less sunshine could be causing his malaise. He tested his theory by exposing himself to bright light the next winter with lamps, and his symptoms improved significantly.
"We did our fist controlled study of light therapy for SAD in 1984, and since then dozens of studies have been done," Rosenthal told CBS Healthwatch. "But there were some holdouts, People who insisted that it might be nothing more than a placebo effect. But as of two years ago, three huge studies were done in a major medical journal that put all end to discussion of placebo. In other words, ever major researcher agrees that light therapy works, specifically more than placebo."
In a 1998 conference on positive and negative effects of ultraviolet light, sponsored by the National Institutes of Health, Rosenthal told researchers and government officials he had encouraged some patients to try tanning salons (tanning beds), and that indoor tanning seemed to improve their moods, raising speculation that a formal study on the effect of tanning on SAD should be conducted. There are many theories about how light can affect mood, but no one is certain how the relationship works.
|
