Cognitive-behavioral Therapy vs. Light Therapy for Preventing SAD Recurrence
Public ClinicalTrials.gov record NCT01714050. Field values are reproduced from the official study page; the official ClinicalTrials.gov record remains the source of truth for eligibility, enrollment, and contact information.
Data is sourced from official ClinicalTrials.gov public API records. Always review the official ClinicalTrials.gov record for the latest information.
Official title
Cognitive-behavioral Therapy vs. Light Therapy for Preventing Seasonal Affective Disorder Recurrence
Brief summary
Reproduced verbatim from the official ClinicalTrials.gov record. Not medical advice.
Major depression is a highly prevalent, chronic, and debilitating mental health problem with significant social cost that poses a tremendous economic burden. Winter seasonal affective disorder (SAD) is a subtype of recurrent major depression involving substantial depressive symptoms that adversely affect the family and workplace for about 5 months of each year during most years, beginning in young adulthood. This clinical trial is relevant to this public health challenge in seeking to develop and test a time-limited (i.e., acute treatment completed in a discrete period vs. daily treatment every fall/winter indefinitely), palatable cognitive-behavioral treatment with effects that endure beyond the cessation of acute treatment to prevent the annual recurrence of depression in SAD. Aim (1) To compare the long-term efficacy of cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) and light therapy on depression recurrence status, symptom severity, and remission status during the next winter season (i.e., the next wholly new winter season after the initial winter of treatment completion), which we argue to be the most important time point for evaluating clinical outcomes following SAD intervention. Hypothesis: CBT will be associated with a smaller proportion of depression recurrences, less severe symptoms, and a higher proportion of remissions than light therapy in the next winter. The study is designed to detect a clinically important difference between CBT and light therapy in depressive episode recurrences during the next winter, the primary endpoint, in an intent-to-treat analysis. Aim (2) To compare the efficacy of CBT and light therapy on symptom severity and remission status at post-treatment (treatment endpoint). Hypothesis: CBT and light therapy will not differ significantly on post-treatment outcomes.
Study identification
- NCT ID
- NCT01714050
- Recruitment status
- Completed
- Study type
- Interventional
- Phase
- Not applicable
- Enrollment
- 177 participants
Conditions and interventions
Conditions
Interventions
- Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT) Behavioral
- Light Therapy (LT) Device
Behavioral · Device
Eligibility (public fields only)
- Age range
- 18 Years and older
- Sex
- All
- Healthy volunteers
- Healthy volunteers not accepted
This page does not interpret eligibility. Detailed inclusion and exclusion criteria are on the official ClinicalTrials.gov record.
Study timeline
- Start date
- Jun 30, 2008
- Primary completion
- Jan 31, 2014
- Completion
- Jan 31, 2014
- Last update posted
- May 8, 2023
2008 – 2014
United States locations
- U.S. sites
- 1
- U.S. states
- 1
- U.S. cities
- 1
| Facility | City | State | ZIP | Site status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| University of Vermont, Psychology Department | Burlington | Vermont | 05405-0134 | — |
Site contact phone numbers, emails, and investigator names are intentionally not displayed here. Open the official ClinicalTrials.gov record for site contact information.
About this trial record page
- What this page shows
- Public field values for ClinicalTrials.gov record NCT01714050, including study identification, conditions, interventions, eligibility (age, sex, healthy volunteer), timeline, and U.S. site list.
- What this page does not do
- No medical advice, eligibility judgments, treatment recommendations, study quality scoring, or AI-generated medical summaries. No site contact phone numbers, emails, or investigator names.
- Where the data comes from
- Sourced from the official ClinicalTrials.gov public API. The official record is the source of truth.
- Last refresh
- Last update posted May 8, 2023 · Synced Sep 6, 2026
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Open the official record
The complete protocol, eligibility criteria, and contact information for NCT01714050 live on ClinicalTrials.gov.