For patients that have seasonal affective disorder and bad/no insurance, are there any quality, affordable 10k lumen light boxes that are commercially available that you would recommend?
Is this actually true? I've done a fair amount of reading recently and it seems like there are a number of concerns with these cheap boxes. 1) listed lux not true lux 2) listed lux falls off considerably at recommend distance of 18-24" from face 3) some concerns that LED light is not as effective as florescent bulbs that initial SAD light box research was done on. Any SAD/light box guru's on the board have thoughts on these lights?10,000 lux lamps are like $20-30 on amazon. They're all the same.
Just make sure to warn them that it has to be 10K lux and they should check the directions and make sure they maintain the recommended distance from the lamp to get 10K lux for the entire exposure time.
A lot of the earlier research was basically guessing on how much and for how long. Seemingly, there was similar evidence for efficacy for lower lux for longer periods. However, there does not seem to be much advantage to doing that and 10,000 lux for 30 minutes is considered the standard dosage.I'm curious, the sunlight day-lights company remarks on proportionally increasing duration of use with distance from the light (lower lux values). Did anyone catch any existing research on use of lower-intensity lights for longer periods of time? Or are they just extrapolating without evidence?
I don't think there is as ample evidence for dawn stimulation. Literally, just less studies on it. There have been numerous reviews of light therapy across numerous conditions (primarily depression-related stuff). There are still people that study and publish on light therapy. Dawn stimulation seems to have had much fewer studies for less problems. I often worry this is due to the file drawer effect. Negative ion therapy seems to have a similar fate. Some promising studies and then it all just went away.When I last reviewed the literature, it seemed like dawn simulation had similar amount of evidence
People can actually buy a lux meter as well. Though, I don't know how well calibrated they are out of the box.It seems most lamps you'll find are basically the same, as long as you are getting the right amount of lux. However, lux is a function of distance from the light, so some lights that advertise a high lux may not be clear with how close you need to be to get that lux. Some may have the correct amount of lux, but at a impractical distance.
I find these cheaper boxes to not be as trustworthy or easy to set up to get the most effective exposure. I do not have evidence but, as other mentioned, some of these require like 6-8 inches to get 10,000 lux, which is a bit too close. Also, some are so small I have a hard time believing they can actually generate the advertised lux. Finally, people forget that these bulbs dim over time and need to be replaced periodically. I worry that the cheaper ones are just that, cheaper and will dim more quickly.10,000 lux lamps are like $20-30 on amazon. They're all the same.