ArticleJournal of psychiatric research2017
Correcting delayed circadian phase with bright light therapy predicts improvement in ADHD symptoms: A pilot study.
Article in Journal of psychiatric research, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 30 papers, 1 of them a synthesis 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
30 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 58 citations in OpenAlex.
- Pooled it
- Sleep, rest-activity rhythm, cognitive and emotional symptoms in adult ADHD: unraveling the links with an actimetry-based approach.BMC psychiatry · 2026Trial
- Human CRY1 variants associate with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder.The Journal of clinical investigation · 2020Trial
- Effects and clinical feasibility of a behavioral treatment for sleep problems in adult attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD): a pragmatic within-group pilot evaluation.BMC psychiatry · 2019Trial
- Chronotherapy to reinforce circadian rhythms improves poststroke outcomes and glymphatic function in mice.The Journal of clinical investigation · 2026Article
- Bright Light Therapy in Psychiatric Disorders: Mechanisms, Clinical Procedures and Evidence.Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Review
- Cone-Specific Filter-Based Neuromodulation: A Proposed Clinical Framework for Amblyopia, Strabismus, and ADHD.Clinics and practice · 2025Article
- Insights from 24-hour actigraphy using functional linear modeling in children with and without ADHD.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Article
- Relationship Between Sleep and Immunology in Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder.International journal of molecular sciences · 2025Review
- The Role of Sleep and the Effects of Sleep Loss on Cognitive, Affective, and Behavioral Processes.Cureus · 2025Review
- ADHD as a circadian rhythm disorder: evidence and implications for chronotherapy.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2025Article
- Optimizing Chronotherapy in Psychiatric Care: The Impact of Circadian Rhythms on Medication Timing and Efficacy.Clocks & sleep · 2024Review
- Circadian neurogenetics and its implications in neurophysiology, behavior, and chronomedicine.Neuroscience and biobehavioral reviews · 2024Review
- Article
- A review of recent treatments for adults living with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder.The South African journal of psychiatry : SAJP : the journal of the Society of Psychiatrists of South Africa · 2023Review
- Sleep and circadian differences between light and heavy adult alcohol drinkers.Alcoholism, clinical and experimental research · 2022Article
- Circadian preference is associated with multiple domains of trait and state level impulsivity.Chronobiology international · 2022Article
- Management of sleep disorders among children and adolescents with neurodevelopmental disorders: A practical guide for clinicians.World journal of clinical pediatrics · 2022Review
- Morning light therapy in adults with Tourette's disorder.Journal of neurology · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
7 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a common condition with comorbid insomnia reported in >70% of children and adults. These patients demonstrate delays in sleep-wake rhythms, nocturnal rise in melatonin, and early morning rise in cortisol. Given that standard psychopharmacologic treatments for ADHD often do not completely control symptoms in participants with circadian rhythm delay, we sought to test whether bright light therapy (BLT) advances circadian rhythms and further reduces ADHD symptoms over standard treatments. In addition to standard of care, participants with ADHD diagnosis underwent 1 week of baseline assessment followed by 2-weeks of 30-min morning 10,000-lux BLT beginning 3 h after mid-sleep time. Participants minimized overhead light after 4 p.m., wore an actigraphy watch, and recorded BLT time on daily sleep logs. Dim Light Melatonin Onset (DLMO) was assessed at baseline and after 2-week treatment. ADHD symptoms were measured by the ADHD-Rating Scales (ADHD-RS). BLT significantly advanced the phase of DLMO by 31 min [mean time (SEM), 20:36 (0:21) advanced to 20:05 (0:20)] and mid-sleep time by 57 min [4:37 (0:22) advanced to 3:40 (0:16); paired t-tests, p = 0.002 and 0.004, respectively). Phase advances (in DLMO or mid-sleep time) were significantly correlated with decreased ADHD-RS total scores (p = 0.027 and 0.044) and Hyperactive-Impulsive sub-scores (p = 0.014 and 0.013, respectively). Actigraphy analysis for a subset of 8 participants with significant DLMO phase advance revealed no significant changes in total sleep time, sleep efficiency, wake after sleep onset, or percent wake during sleep interval. This is the first successful use of BLT for advancing melatonin phase and improving ADHD symptoms in adults. BLT may be a complementary treatment for both delayed sleep timing and ADHD symptoms in adults.
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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.