Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) is a particularly debilitating condition that affects a significant portion of the population. In fact, it is the leading cause of disability among individuals between 15 and 44 years of age.
Traditional MDD treatments, such as antidepressant medications and psychotherapy, have limitations. Additionally, antidepressant medications can cause burdensome side effects, and cognitive therapy is associated with frequent relapses. For these reasons, there is a pressing need for new, effective, safe, and easy-to-administer MDD treatment methods.
One potential treatment method is “photobiomodulation” (light therapy / laser therapy). This therapy uses near-infrared light to prompt physiological responses. This innovative therapy has shown therapeutic effectiveness for a range of neuropsychiatric disorders, including MDD. It has shown promising results in both animal and human studies, and it has no known adverse side effects.
There are right and wrong ways to deliver laser treatments. To a enhance the success rate of photobiomodulation, healthcare providers should personalize each patient’s MDD treatment plan. Advanced technology, such as computer modeling, can simulate how light penetrates through various tissues, including the skull. This can help practitioners determine how the therapy can be best administered for different ages and how to adjust the dose of light for maximum effectiveness. Although light penetration to the brain decreases as age increases, an effective dose can be delivered in less than 2 minutes even when applying treatment through a thicker skull. This makes laser therapy not only effective, but also time-efficient.
The type of light and its brightness also play a crucial role in the effectiveness of each laser treatment. Various studies have shown that an 800–850 nanometer wavelength delivers the highest energy deposition to the brain. This is important because the energy deposition impacts the effectiveness of the treatment. Different types of infrared light have varying energy deposition rates to the brain, so delivering the best choice of light is crucial for maximizing treatment outcomes.
Although laser therapy for depression, addiction, or anxiety has not yet been cleared by the FDA, there is a considerable amount of ongoing research in this area. The hope is that this safe and effective method could become a new way to improve mental health treatments.
For example, one study that focused on treating opioid cravings utilized light therapy with positive results. The study’s patient participants wore special glasses that allowed images to be displayed to one eye at a time. This method provided the researchers with a means to stimulate each hemisphere of the brain individually. By correlating the patient's emotional response with the stimulated hemisphere, the researchers could determine which hemisphere was more dominant in emotional processing. The study demonstrated that applying an 810-nanometer LED unit for 4 minutes to the positive side of the brain resulted in a significant decrease in opioid craving, depression, and anxiety scores. This is just one of the many encouraging signs of photobiomodulation’s potential to be used as a safe and effective treatment for mental health conditions.
While more research is always recommended, recent discoveries have sparked much optimism about the future of light therapy in treating addiction, depression, and anxiety. As science and technology continue to advance, we may soon have new and improved ways to treat MDD and other mental health conditions.
If you would like to learn more about how laser might help you or your loved ones, we suggest you ask a Laser Therapy Institute Member near you!