`When There's No Money To Be Made...'

Despite proven efficacy, light therapy appears to be a marginal treatment in the eyes of many clinicians.

“I believe the availability of light therapy is hit or miss,” said Robert Golden, M.D., author of a meta-analysis of studies of light therapy showing it to be highly effective in treatment of mood disorders (see above story). “Some communities may not have clinicians who are trained in this modality. It is a relatively new treatment compared with psychotherapy or pharmacotherapy, and I would predict that the number of lectures and symposia focused on it at the APA annual meeting is quite small, compared with those addressing other treatments.

“In my opinion, more education is clearly indicated, especially as the evidence base supporting its use and defining the standard treatment parameters moves forward,” Golden said.

Norman Rosenthal, M.D., who has done more than anyone to advance the use of light therapy and the understanding of seasonal affective disorder (SAD), concurred.

“I know of no published data that speak to the frequency with which clinicians prescribe light therapy, but my impression, based on many years of working with SAD patients, is that clinicians often just don't think about it as a legitimate therapy or else fail to prescribe light for other reasons,” he told Psychiatric News.

“It is certainly an area in which clinicians need more education,” Rosenthal added. “When it comes to pharmaceutical treatments of depression and other conditions, physicians are constantly being educated by pharmaceutical representatives and at industry-sponsored dinners and symposia. But when there is no money to be made, no such opportunities for education arise, and public agencies would do well to step in and fill the vacuum.”