How Light Therapy Helps Seasonal Depression with Hardin, KY

How Light Therapy Helps Seasonal Depression with Hardin, KY Healthtalk Transcript

Imran Iqbal, MD, Psychiatry
Baptist Health Hardin

Imran Iqbal, MD:

Seasonal depression is something that you can see in patients who do completely fine during the summer and during the spring. When fall and winter come around, due to light changes we think, they start to become more depressed. Sometimes that depression can be severe. Symptoms include depression, insomnia, sleeping too much and irritability. Some more of the anxiety symptoms [are] worrying excessively, feeling on edge, feeling keyed up, feeling tense, and also craving sweets.

Treating seasonal pattern depression includes a light box, bright light therapy, or a happy light. Light therapy has been found to be effective. It's 30 minutes to an hour every morning about a foot away off to the side, and you do that for about an hour every day from September through March.

There are definitely easy ways to alleviate this; there's no reason to suffer. It's the best feeling in the world to see your patients go from not doing well at all to doing extremely well. Getting back to where they were, coming in and saying, “Doc, I feel normal again.” “Doc, I feel human again.” “I never thought I would feel like this again.” It is incredibly rewarding.

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