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Light therapy and fluoxetine both work in seasonal affective disorder

BMJ 2006; 332 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.332.7553.0-e (Published 01 June 2006) Cite this as: BMJ 2006;332:0-e

Research question Which is the better treatment for seasonal affective disorder, fluoxetine or light therapy?

Answer They both work equally well, although light therapy works slightly faster.

Why did the authors do the study? Both antidepressants and light therapy work better than a placebo for patients with seasonal affective disorder. But it's unclear how they compare with each other. These authors wanted to find out by comparing the two treatments head to head. They also wanted to find out how light therapy performs in the medium term; previous trials lasted no more than five weeks.

What did they do? 96 Canadian adults took part in …

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