Background: Bright artificial light improves non-seasonal depression. Preliminary observations suggest that sunlight could share this effect. Methods: Length of hospitalization was recorded for a sample of 415 unipolar and 187 bipolar depressed inpatients, assigned to rooms with eastern (E) or western (W) windows, Results: Bipolar inpatients in E rooms (exposed to direct sunlight in the morning) had a mean 3.67-day shorter hospital stay than patients in W rooms. No effect was found in unipolar inpatients. Conclusions: Natural sunlight can be an underestimated and uncontrolled light therapy for bipolar depression. Limitations: This is a naturalistic retrospective observation, which needs to be confirmed by prospective studies. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

Morning sunlight reduces length of hospitalization in bipolar depression

Benedetti F;Colombo C;Smeraldi E
2001-01-01

Abstract

Background: Bright artificial light improves non-seasonal depression. Preliminary observations suggest that sunlight could share this effect. Methods: Length of hospitalization was recorded for a sample of 415 unipolar and 187 bipolar depressed inpatients, assigned to rooms with eastern (E) or western (W) windows, Results: Bipolar inpatients in E rooms (exposed to direct sunlight in the morning) had a mean 3.67-day shorter hospital stay than patients in W rooms. No effect was found in unipolar inpatients. Conclusions: Natural sunlight can be an underestimated and uncontrolled light therapy for bipolar depression. Limitations: This is a naturalistic retrospective observation, which needs to be confirmed by prospective studies. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11768/77145
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