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A comment on How Blue Lights on Train Platforms Combat Tokyo’s Suicide Epidemic. Parent comment

Re:How Blue Lights on Train Platforms Combat Tokyo’s Suicide... by jchrisa on Monday December 28, 2015 @09:21AM (#10801162)
I have a http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00M3SGD4Y/ blue light in my office to use around noon in wintertime it has a powerful effect. Using it too early in the morning can throw your circadian rhythm so maybe lunch is the best time.
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Re:How Blue Lights on Train Platforms Combat Tokyo’s Suicide... by symkat on Monday December 28, 2015 @12:03PM (#10802068)
From Amazon: "84 percent of users were satisfied with the way Philips goLITE BLU helped them to fight winter blues."

From Article: "84 percent decrease in suicides at stations with the blue lights."

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Re:How Blue Lights on Train Platforms Combat Tokyo’s Suicide... by henpa on Monday December 28, 2015 @01:10PM (#10802426)
Wow, nice catch!
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Re:How Blue Lights on Train Platforms Combat Tokyo’s Suicide... by leereeves on Monday December 28, 2015 @10:47AM (#10801608)
I was thinking something similar.

Light therapy is a common treatment for seasonal affective disorder and depression. Just speculating, but this sounds like a public health version of that, something like adding iodine to salt or fluoride to drinking water.

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Re:How Blue Lights on Train Platforms Combat Tokyo’s Suicide... by DanBC on Monday December 28, 2015 @10:55AM (#10801653)
Watch out: light therapy for SAD is very well known, but the quality of the evidence is very low.

http://www.cochrane.org/CD011269/DEPRESSN_light-therapy-prev...

> Which studies were included in the review?

> We searched databases up to August 2015 for studies on light therapy to prevent winter depression. Among 2986 records, we found one randomised controlled study including 46 people who received light therapy or no treatment. All individuals in these studies had a history of winter depression.

> What does the evidence from the review reveal?

> The quality of evidence for all outcomes was very low, so we can draw no conclusions about whether light therapy is effective in preventing winter depression. The included study provided no information on side effects of light therapy.

[...]

> Authors' conclusions:

> Evidence on light therapy as preventive treatment for patients with a history of SAD is limited. Methodological limitations and the small sample size of the only available study have precluded review author conclusions on effects of light therapy for SAD. Given that comparative evidence for light therapy versus other preventive options is limited, the decision for or against initiating preventive treatment of SAD and the treatment selected should be strongly based on patient preferences. It has a plausible mechanism of action, and (so long as other treatment approaches aren't ignored) it's unlikely to do any harm.

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Re:How Blue Lights on Train Platforms Combat Tokyo’s Suicide... by leereeves on Monday December 28, 2015 @11:00AM (#10801700)
> we found one randomised controlled study

> the small sample size of the only available study

The only study?

https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=light+therapy+depressio...

There are numerous studies showing a benefit from light therapy.

It is true that the the quality of the evidence could be improved. That's a political/financial issue, not a reflection of the efficacy (or lack thereof) of light therapy. The available evidence supports the treatment.

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Re:How Blue Lights on Train Platforms Combat Tokyo’s Suicide... by fractaled on Monday December 28, 2015 @11:59AM (#10802045)
I read that to mean there was only one study that was randomized & controlled.

Basically when you say "there are studies that show X" you aren't saying anything because "studies" are cheap unless your methodology is rigorous and sound, which isn't the case a lot of the time.

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Re:How Blue Lights on Train Platforms Combat Tokyo’s Suicide... by leereeves on Monday December 28, 2015 @12:19PM (#10802150)
Of course. Here are three randomized, controlled studies just from the first page of the Google Scholar results:

http://archpsyc.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=20429...

http://ajp.psychiatryonline.org/doi/full/10.1176/ajp.2006.16...

http://archpsyc.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=20433...

Apparently, 91 papers passed Nussbaumer et al's assessment of the abstract (and were presumably randomized, controlled trials):

We assessed 91 full-text papers for inclusion in the review, but only one study providing data from 46 people met our eligibility criteria.

Those eligibility criteria were:

For efficacy, we included randomised controlled trials on adults with a history of winter-type SAD who were free of symptoms at the beginning of the study.

I think it may have been the focus on prevention (rather than treatment of symptomatic depression) that excluded all the other papers.

I just skimmed the paper the paper the first time and didn't notice that the authors were searching for studies of a very specific question: prevention (excluding treatment) of seasonal affective disorder (excluding any other form of depression).

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Re:How Blue Lights on Train Platforms Combat Tokyo’s Suicide... by _asdf_asdf on Monday December 28, 2015 @10:41AM (#10801563)
If all this were generally true of blue light, then a television monitor tuned to an all-blue channel would be just as effective.
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Re:How Blue Lights on Train Platforms Combat Tokyo’s Suicide... by Jtsummers on Monday December 28, 2015 @10:46AM (#10801602)
> If all this were generally true of blue light, then a television monitor tuned to an all-blue channel would be just as effective.

If it hits the same frequencies.

The frequency of the light is important here, because our body/eyes pick up on and react differently to, well, different frequencies. Just because we perceive two lights as producing the same color does not mean that we will get the same reaction, physiologically, from both of them.

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Re:How Blue Lights on Train Platforms Combat Tokyo’s Suicide... by db48x on Monday December 28, 2015 @11:48AM (#10801983)
An "all-blue" channel is an artifact of your television. Modern televisions put up a solid color rather than snow when they fail to detect a carrier wave on the chosen channel.
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Re:How Blue Lights on Train Platforms Combat Tokyo’s Suicide... by recursive on Monday December 28, 2015 @12:52PM (#10802302)
The mechanics don't really matter. It's still just as effective.
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Re:How Blue Lights on Train Platforms Combat Tokyo’s Suicide... by db48x on Monday December 28, 2015 @09:13PM (#10804758)
Ok, but the "all-blue channel" is just the TV turning all the lights blue when it can't find a signal. Why bring a TV into it if you can just put up blue lights?
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