Light therapy
Light therapy is a treatment where the patient is exposed to light. Depression, sleeping problems, bipolar disorder and many skin conditions are treated with this therapy. The therapy consists of exposing the patient to a light source (a table lamp, for example). The light source usually emits the full spectrum of light. Sometimes, this has to be done at a specific time of day.
When it is used for skin conditions, it is usually called phototherapy. Example conditions where phototherapy is used are psoriasis and atopic dermatitis.
Light therapy should generally not be used, in the case the patient also suffers from certain diseases of the eyes. Certain drugs make people more sensitive to light. People taking such drugs should also not use light therapy.
Light Therapy Media
- Bili light with newborn.jpg
A baby in neonatal care under a blue-light (420–470 nm) phototherapy lamp wearing only a diaper, being treated for newborn jaundice (hyperbilirubinemia)
- Blue Light acne phototherapy iClear.jpg
High-intensity blue light (425 nm) used for the attempted treatment of acne
- Jaundice phototherapy.jpg
A newborn infant undergoing white-light phototherapy to treat neonatal jaundice
- Light therapy lamp and sunlight.jpg
Light intensity of a light therapy lamp in a room. Daylight only penetrates into the room filtered and restricted from the window curtain and protruding roof. In modern society, people often spend too little time outdoors, where the light is significantly brighter than in closed rooms.
- Sun therapy at Alton Hospital Wellcome L0074520.jpg
Child patients with external forms of tuberculosis, especially of the bones and joints, laying on beds on a terrace outside Treloar Hospital in Alton, Hampshire, England, in sunlight as part of their light therapy, ca. first half of the 20th century
