Bright Light Therapy as Add-On to Inpatient Treatment in Youth With Moderate to Severe Depression: A Randomized Clinical Trial
Abstract
Importance: Major depressive disorder is one of the most common mental disorders among adolescents, entailing severe, long-term psychosocial impairment and a high risk of chronicity. In view of the large number of patients requiring treatment, along with insufficient treatment responses with small effect sizes, innovative adjunctive treatment strategies are urgently needed.
Objective: To investigate whether the effect of adolescent psychiatric inpatient treatment as usual for major depressive disorder can be enhanced by simultaneous use of morning bright light therapy.
Design, setting, and participants: This was a double-blind, placebo-controlled randomized parallel-group trial with enrollment between March 2018 and November 2020 and follow-up completed in May 2021. The study took place among inpatients at 4 university hospitals for child and adolescent psychiatry across Germany. Of 248 eligible youth aged 12 to 18 years fulfilling ICD-10 criteria for major depressive disorder, 227 were randomized to bright light therapy (n = 116) or placebo red light (n = 111); 151 participants completed the study.
Interventions: Up to 20 sessions of either morning bright light therapy with an intensity of 10 000 lux or placebo red light (100 lux) in addition to multimodal inpatient treatment as usual over 4 weeks.
Main outcomes and measures: The primary outcome was the change in Beck Depression Inventory-II (BDI-II) score from baseline to posttreatment in the intention-to-treat sample.…
How strong is the evidence?
Evidence Hub reads this as a randomized trial, done in people. Its evidence level is 2 of 5 (High · randomized trial). Randomized trials of a reasonable size are the strongest single-study design. Reported size: 224 participants or records.
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