Bright light therapy in seasonal affective disorder--does it suffice?

Bright light therapy (BLT) has been proposed as treatment of choice for seasonal affective disorder (SAD). However, conventional antidepressants have also been found to be effective in this condition. We examined the psychopharmacologic medication in a clinical sample of 553 SAD patients, who had been treated with BLT, to assess the importance of drug treatment and to critically question the effectiveness of BLT. Forty-nine percent of our patients received psychopharmacologic treatment and about one third (35.4%) was treated with antidepressants, suggesting that BLT does not suffice as only antidepressant regimen for all SAD patients. Furthermore, our results show that only few patients with bipolar affective disorder were willing to accept long-term medication. Opposed to treatment guidelines, patients with several depressive episodes did not receive antidepressant maintenance medication or mood stabilizers more often than patients with only a few episodes.