. Light therapy is a treatment using artificial light to help counter act the effects of winter depression. The light is generated by a piece of equipment called a light box. The children sit about eighteen inches from the light box for the specified time while playing, reading, or watching television. Children are usually exposed to light therapy twice a day. The first session starts in the morning where they are exposed to low-intensity light for usually two hours. Having a session in the early morning helps start the day off better. The second session is usually in the early evening where the children are exposed to high-intensity light for one hour a day. Doing these treatments on a regular basis has shown a decrease in the rate of depression in most children. Most children take a couple of days to experience a difference. There are a few side effects associated with the use of light therapy. Patients under the treatment of light therapy may suffer from photophobia, headache, fatigue, irritability, and insomnia. If these side effects occur, shorten each session until the right amount of time can be determined. The length of time that this process continues for is in the beginning of winter to late March, early April. By the end of winter, there should be enough sunlight not to need light therapy until the next year. There has been guidelines set up so that the use of light therapy should be considered only in patients with well-documented seasonal, non-psychotic, winter depressive episodes occurring within recurrent major depressive disorder, bipolar II disorder or milder seasonal depressive episodes.2In 1997, a study was done to find out the efficiency of light therapy on children with, “Seasonal Affective Disorder.” This was a controlled trial where twenty-eight children ranging from the age of seven to seventeen in two locations. Of those children who would like to be involved in the study, you must h...
