Dr. Michael Terman, one of the nation's leading experts in treating SAD, is the director of the Center for Light Treatment and Biological Rhythms at New York-Presbyterian Hospital and Columbia University Medical Center.

Research at Columbia and worldwide has paid off with a newly recognized, non-drug treatment for depression: light therapy. This approach is based on the latest concepts of interaction between structured light exposure, the biological clock, hormonal balance, and mood and energy regulation. Although it was originally developed for SAD, doctors have recently found that light therapy can lift depression at any time of year.

Light therapy also works in conjunction with antidepressants, speeding response, reducing residual symptoms, and allowing lower drug dose in some cases. Combination therapy can also be adjusted in the Center's clinical setting, providing a comprehensive approach for alleviating the pain and disruption of depressive illness. Using sophisticated algorithms for sleep and circadian rhythm analysis, the optimum wavelengths, intensity and timing of light exposure can be prescribed to meet each individual need.

Dr. Terman's fields of interest include depression, sleep, clinical chronobiology, photobiology, melatonin, instrumentation, psychiatric diagnosis and assessment. His research has followed a triple track: photobiology and circadian rhythms in animal models, clinical chronobiology and light and ion therapy for depressive disorders, and instrumentation development for chronotherapeutics.

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