SynthesisMedicine2025
Effectiveness of visible light for seasonal affective disorder: A systematic review and network meta-analysis.
Synthesis in Medicine, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 papers.
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
2 citing papers in PubMed.
- Bright Light Therapy for Psychiatry Residents: A Pilot Study of Feasibility and Perceived Impact on Wellbeing.Academic psychiatry : the journal of the American Association of Directors of Psychiatric Residency Training and the Association for Academic Psychiatry · 2026Article
- Patient Attitudes About Light Therapy and Negative Ion Therapy for Nonseasonal Depression: An Online Survey Study.Cureus · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundTo determine the efficacy of different visible light therapies in treating seasonal affective disorder (SAD) through both direct and indirect comparisons.
methodsWe conducted a search of the PubMed, Embase, Cochrane Library, Scopus, Web of Science, China National Knowledge Infrastructure, Wanfang, VIP, and China Biomedical Literature databases for randomized controlled trials up to November 12, 2024. The using search terms were: white light, blue light, green light, and SAD/winter depression. Two independent researchers reviewed and extracted the data.
resultsAfter screening, a total of 17 studies were obtained, involving 773 patients. These studies included 14 on white light, 6 on blue light, 2 on green light, and 5 on red light. The results indicated that, in terms of alleviating seasonal mood dysregulation or typical depressive symptoms, white light therapy was most effective, followed by green light, blue light and red light. Furthermore, usual care of SAD was found to be more effective than green light therapy in improving seasonal mood dysregulation.
conclusionThe existing evidence suggests that white light may be the best visible light therapy for patients with SAD, with usual care being more effective than green light. However, larger-scale studies are still needed to verify the potential differences among green light and blue light, further comprehensively evaluate the effectiveness of visible light at different wavelengths for SAD.
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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.