Trial reportPloS one2013
The acute side effects of bright light therapy: a placebo-controlled investigation.
Trial report in PloS one, 2013. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 15 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
15 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 40 citations in OpenAlex.
- Effect of Bright Light Therapy on Perinatal Depression: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis: Effet de la luminothérapie sur la dépression périnatale: une revue systématique et une méta-analyse.Canadian journal of psychiatry. Revue canadienne de psychiatrie · 2024Pooled it
- Efficacy of optometric phototherapy: a systematic review.Journal of optometryPooled it
- Impact of light therapy on rotating night shift workers: the EuRhythDia study.Acta diabetologica · 2022Trial
- Effect of Bright Light Therapy on Depressive Symptoms in Middle-Aged and Older Patients Receiving Long-Term Hemodialysis.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2020Trial
- Effectiveness of Low-Dose Atropine Combined With Bright Light Therapy for Controlling Myopic Eye Growth in Schoolchildren: Study Protocol for a Randomized Controlled Trial.JMIR research protocols · 2026Article
- Article
- Effectiveness of bright light therapy and combination with myopic defocus for controlling myopic eye growth in schoolchildren: study protocol for a randomised controlled trial (phase 1).BMJ open ophthalmology · 2025Article
- Evaluation of The Three-Dimensional Endoscopy in Basic and Extended Nasal Procedures: A Clinical and Cadaveric Study.International archives of otorhinolaryngology · 2023Article
- Effects of light therapy on sleep/wakefulness, daily rhythms, and the central orexin system in a diurnal rodent model of seasonal affective disorder.Journal of affective disorders · 2023Article
- Disability Weights and Years Lived with Disability of Depression with and Without Suicidality.Materia socio-medica · 2023Article
- Digital eye strain during the virtual interviews: evidence-based strategies for medical students.Digital journal of ophthalmology : DJO · 2022Review
- Feasibility of Adjunctive Bright Light Therapy for Depressive Symptoms on an Acute Psychiatric Floor.Cureus · 2021Article
- Effects of Circadian Phase Tailored Light Therapy on Sleep, Mood, and Cognition in Alzheimer's Disease: Preliminary Findings in a Pivotal Study.Frontiers in physiology · 2021Article
- Patients' Experience of Winter Depression and Light Room Treatment.Psychiatry journal · 2017Article
- Nonpharmacologic treatments for depression related to reproductive events.Current psychiatry reports · 2014Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
2 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Despite the emergence of numerous clinical and non-clinical applications of bright light therapy (LT) in recent decades, the prevalence and severity of LT side effects have not yet been fully explicated. A few adverse LT effects-headache, eye strain, irritability, and nausea-have been consistently reported among depressed individuals and other psychiatric cohorts, but there exists little published evidence regarding LT side effects in non-clinical populations, who often undergo LT treatment of considerably briefer duration. Accordingly, in the present study we examined, in a randomized sample of healthy young adults, the acute side effects of exposure to a single 30-minute session of bright white light (10,000 lux) versus dim red light (< 500 lux). Across a broad range of potential side effects, repeated-measures analyses of variance revealed no significant group-by-time (Pre, Post) interactions. In other words, bright light exposure was not associated with a significantly higher incidence of any reported side effect than was the placebo control condition. Nevertheless, small but statistically significant increases in both eye strain and blurred vision were observed among both the LT and control groups. Overall, these results suggest that the relatively common occurrence of adverse side effects observed in the extant LT literature may not fully extend to non-clinical populations, especially for healthy young adults undergoing LT for a brief duration.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.