Efficacy of light therapy versus antidepressant drugs, and of the combination versus monotherapy, in major depressive episodes: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Summary Although light therapy (LT) has been shown to be efficient in the treatment of seasonal and non-seasonal depression, it is underused in clinical settings and antidepressant drugs (AD) remain so far the usual first line treatment. The aim of this systematic review and weighted random effect meta-analysis is to examine the randomized controlled trials that compared directly light therapy and antidepressant drugs, as well as their combination (LT+AD). A total of 397 participants were included, with a moderate to severe major depressive episode, from seven independent populations. The median duration of intervention was 5 weeks (range 2-8 weeks). The superiority (lower depression score) of LT+Placebo compared to AD+Placebo was non-significant (SMD=0.19[-0.08-0.45]; p=0.17). The combination LT+AD was superior to AD+Placebo (SMD=0.56[0.24-0.88]; p