Case study: dawn simulation as maintenance treatment in a nine-year-old patient with seasonal affective disorder

Meesters Y.

Department of Biological Psychiatry, Academic Hospital Groningen, The Netherlands. y.meesters@psych.azg.nl

After four winter seasons of successful treatment with light boxes, a 9-year-old patient with seasonal affective disorder refused to make further use of the light box. Instead he was treated with dawn simulation (a dim light administered just before waking up and gradually increased in intensity). The patient used dawn simulation therapy from October until mid-May, with an occasional variation of the maximum light intensity (100, 200, or 300 iux). The patient, his parents, and his teacher were all happy with this type of treatment.

TI Dawn simulation treatment for Winter Depression

AU Avery D.

SO SLTBR Abstracts. 1993 June

AB Reviewing four previous studies the author states that the degree of improvement with dawn simulation is similar to that seen in previous studies of bright light boxes.

TI Dawn simulation in teenage children

AU Brainard G.

SO In Press

AB 80% or more of the subjects who used the (original Bodyclock) and their parents found ease of waking superior (twice as easy as usual) and preferred it to other methods of awakening. Since the clock is a .. novel technology placebo effect could not be ruled out.

TI A controlled study of dawn simulation in subsyndromal winter depression

AU Norden MJ, Avery DH.

SO Acta Psychiatr Scand. 1993 July;88(1):67-71

AB Dawn simulation was well tolerated and resulted in marked improvement in a group of subsyndromal SAD subjects. Both the rapid (placebo) and slow conditions were associated with an improvement over baseline but there was a significant dose response effect favouring the longer dawn signal.

TI Dawn simulation vs. lightbox treatment in SAD: a comparative study

AU Lingjaerde O, Foreland AR, Dankertsen J.

SO Acta Psychiatr Scand. 1998 Jul;98(1):73-80

AB 61 outpatients with winter depression were randomised to receive either lightbox treatment with bright light or dawn simulation treatment in their homes. Patients’ ratings of improvement at the end of treatment showed a mean of 40% in the dawn simulation group and 57% in the lightbox group.

TI Dawn simulation and bright light in the treatment of SAD: a controlled study

AU Avery DH, Eder DN, Bolte MA, Hellekson CJ, Dunner DL, Vitiello MV, Prinz PN.

SO Biol Psychiatry. 2001 Aug 1;50(3):205-16

AB Dawn simulation was associated with greater remission and response rates compared to the placebo and compared to bright light therapy. The hours of sunshine during the week before each assessment were associated with a positive clinical response