Since 1983, the Winter Depression Clinic has conducted a set of major clinical trials of non-drug treatments for seasonal affective disorder (SAD) designed to expedite antidepressant response, reduce residual symptoms and keep patients feeling well until the period of spontaneous remission (usually April-May), after which further treatment is unnecessary until the fall. The clinic was the first to develop and test 10,000 lux/30 minute light therapy, which has become the international standard of first-line treatment.
The clinic also drew on earlier basic lab research to design the first dawn simulation system, which replicates a naturalistic springtime sunrise in the dark bedroom in winter. Another first was the clinic‚s discovery that artificially produced negative air ions - which present an indoor environment similar to the seashore - have an antidepressant effect. In their latest studies, the clinic has found these same non-drug techniques also useful for nonseasonal depression. Both light and ion therapies have been combined successfully with drug treatment in difficult cases.
The clinic is not currently recruiting research volunteers. Instead, we are referring patients to the Center for Light Treatment and Biological Rhythms at Columbia University Medical Center, where staff provides individualized open treatment for both inpatients and outpatients.
