A CONTROLLED-STUDY OF LIGHT THERAPY FOR BULIMIA-NERVOSA

Objective: Winter worsening of mood and eating symptoms, similar to th at of seasonal affective disorder, has recently been reported in patie nts with bulimia nervosa. To assess the effectiveness of light therapy for treatment of bulimia nervosa, the authors conducted a study of li ght therapy during winter comparing an active (bright white light) con dition to a control (dim red light) condition in bulimic patients who were not selected for a seasonal pattern of bulimia. Method: After a 2 -week baseline assessment, 17 female patients with a DSM-III-R diagnos is of bulimia nervosa underwent early morning light treatment with 2 w eeks of bright white light exposure (10,000 lux: for 30 min/day) and 2 weeks of dim red light exposure (500 lux for 30 min/day) in a counter balanced, crossover design. Outcome measures included daily binge/purg e diaries, objective and subjective measures of mood, and the Eating A ttitudes Test. Expectation of response for each condition was also ass essed before treatment. Results: Although pretreatment expectation rat ings were similar for each condition, the bright white light condition was superior to the dim red light condition for all mood and eating o utcome measures. Patients with ''seasonal'' bulimia (N=7) had signific antly greater improvement after the bright white light treatment than patients with nonseasonal bulimia (N=10). No significant order effects were noted, nor differential effects for patients taking concurrent a ntidepressant medications (N=4). Conclusions: These data suggest that bright white light therapy is an effective short-term treatment for bo th mood and eating disturbances associated with bulimia nervosa, altho ugh the therapeutic effect may be greater in those patients with a sea sonal pattern.