Psychotherapy Beats Light Treatment for SAD
THURSDAY, Oct. 29 (HealthDay News) -- As daylight hours dwindle, people with seasonal affective disorder (SAD) can often feel the onset of wintertime depression, but a new study suggests one type of remedy may work better than another at banishing the SAD blues.
Cognitive behavioral therapy specially designed to treat people with SAD is more effective at preventing recurrences of depression than either light therapy or a combination of the two, the study found.
The psychotherapy may also be a time-saver -- potentially welcome news with Daylight Saving Time coming to an end on Nov. 1.
"It's an up-front investment, three hours of therapy a week in total over six weeks, whereas light therapy is 30 minutes a day and not just for six weeks," said study author Kelly Rohan, a psychologist at the University of Vermont. "Light therapy depends on a lot of time and effort, a minimum 30 minutes in front of the fixture every day of the symptomatic months every year. I don't know how many people are willing to do that."
The study was published in a recent issue of the journal Behavior Therapy.
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Where do you go to get cognitive behavioral therapy? Is it expensive? Alot of people make under $1,000.00 monthly with out insurance these days with all the cut backs so it's not like we can just go to the doctor anytime we get sad. Dose that mean we're stuck with the light box?