The effect of bright light therapy on depression and sleep quality during pregnancy

Determining the effect of bright light therapy on depression and sleep quality during pregnancy

Clinical trial with control group, community based and pragmatic, with parallel, double blind, and randomized groups

The place of the study was the selected health service centers affiliated to Tehran University of Medical Sciences, such as Akbarabad, Ayat, Farmanfarmai’yan and Imam Mohammad Bagher clinics. Samples will be assigned to one of the two groups, intervention or control, by simple randomization or drawing. Before the study starts, participants are informed that they are randomly assigned to one of two groups, intervention or control. Due to the similarity of the lamps used in intervention or control groups, the researcher, participants, evaluator and data analyzer may not detect the types of lamps, and only the designer and manufacturer of the lamps can distinguish them.

Inclusion criteria: 18–35 years of age, 14–28 weeks pregnant, mild depression and moderate depression from Beck Depression Inventory. exclusion criteria:History of any known medical and obstetric complications of pregnancy, History of known chronic diseases and other psychiatric disorders, History of hospital admission due to known psychological problems, History of known ocular diseases and eye surgery in a recent year.

The intervention group received therapy with the bright light (9000 lux) and the control group with the dark red light (100 lux) during the first 30min after waking up at the morning for 5 weeks. This light is emitted from light boxes, which include a frame, stand and LED lamps. These equipments are purchased from Aj Teb Co. and designed and manufactured by a member of the research team

Depression Score, Sleep Quality Score

In this study, the samples were under intervention or control through simple randomization in one of two groups. Simple randomization is performed individually by simple drawing and randomization unit, in such a way that 35 numbers from 1 to 70 are randomly selected and assigned to the intervention group and the rest of the numbers will be assigned to the control group. .

Before the study starts, participants are informed that they are randomly assigned to one of two groups, A or B, and also that they may be treated with a illuminant light (9000 LUX), which, according to some studies, have been effective in treating depressive symptoms, or weak light (100LUX). Due to the similarity of the lamps used in Groups A and B, the researcher, participants, evaluator and data analyzer may not detect the types of lamps, and only the designer and manufacturer of the lamps, i.e. Mr. Radfar (Ph.D. in Medical physics) can distinguish between the lamps. All of the above have been addressed in the Ethical Committee, and considering all of these aspects, the Code of Ethics has been issued, which is attached to the relevant section