Morning sunlight reduces length of hospitalization in bipolar depression.
BACKGROUND
Bright artificial light improves non-seasonal depression. Preliminary observations suggest that sunlight could share this effect.


METHODS
Length of hospitalization was recorded for a sample of 415 unipolar and 187 bipolar depressed inpatients, assigned to rooms with eastern (E) or western (W) windows.


RESULTS
Bipolar inpatients in E rooms (exposed to direct sunlight in the morning) had a mean 3.67-day shorter hospital stay than patients in W rooms. No effect was found in unipolar inpatients.


CONCLUSIONS
Natural sunlight can be an underestimated and uncontrolled light therapy for bipolar depression.


CONCLUSIONS
This is a naturalistic retrospective observation, which needs to be confirmed by prospective studies.
Istituto Scientifico Ospedale San Raffaele, Department of Neuropsychiatric Sciences, University of Milan, School of Medicine, Via Prinetti 29, 20127 Milan, Italy. benedetti.francesco@hsr.it
F
F
Benedetti
C
C
Colombo
B
B
Barbini
E
E
Campori
E
E
Smeraldi
D000328:Adult; D001714:Bipolar Disorder / Q000628:therapy*; D003863:Depression / Q000628:therapy; D003866:Depressive Disorder / Q000628:therapy*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007297:Inpatients / Q000523:psychology*; D007558:Italy; D007902:Length of Stay / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D008297:Male; D010789:Phototherapy / Q000379:methods*; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D013472:Sunlight