The Effects of Light Therapy on Circadian Rhythms, Sleep, and Mood in Postpartum Depression

University of Michigan

Status: Completed

Conditions: Depression, Postpartum

Treatments: Device: Light therapy

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT02769858

G016030

Details and patient eligibility

About

The proposed study aims to establish the feasibility of light therapy for postpartum depression delivered via Re-Timer, demonstrate its preliminary efficacy, and illuminate relationships between circadian shifts and mood changes using a novel, home-based circadian biomarker assessment paradigm (salivary dim light melatonin onset; DLMO).

Enrollment: 10 patients

Sex: Female

Ages: 18+ years old

Volunteers: No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• Within 6 months postpartum
• Meet DSM-V diagnostic criteria for MDD
• Score ≥ 20 on the Structured Interview Guide for the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale-Seasonal Affective Disorder version (SIGH-SAD).

Exclusion criteria

• current diagnosis of bipolar disorder, posttraumatic stress disorder, schizophrenia or psychosis, dissociative disorders, eating disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, somatic symptom and related disorders, substance use disorder, panic disorder, agoraphobia per DSM-V
• past history of mania/hypomania,
• chronic medical conditions associated with depression (e.g., thyroid conditions)
• ocular or retinal pathology
• history of seizures or epilepsy
• color blindness
• Lupus
• currently taking an antibiotic, medication that contains hydrochlorothiazide, or isotretinoin (Accutane).

Trial design

Primary purpose: Treatment

Allocation: N/A

Interventional model: Single Group Assignment

Masking: None (Open label)

---

10 participants in 1 patient group

Light Therapy

Experimental group

Description:

Participants will use commercially-available light therapy glasses (Re-Timer) daily for 60 minutes for five weeks.

Treatment:

Device: Light therapy