A simple portable ocular light device for phototherapy of seasonal affective disorder.

The authors report the development and a safety and acceptability study of a portable ocular light device, the SADlite. The study was conducted in 15 adult patients who had seasonal affective disorder (SAD). Each patient was given three two-week "on" phototherapy periods alternating with three two-week "off" periods.

Headache and electroconvulsive therapy.

While headache is a documented side effect of electroconvulsive therapy (ECT), there is little information on this phenomenon. Studies of the mechanisms of ECT as a treatment for depression indicate that alterations in serotonergic neurotransmission appear to be related to its efficacy. While ECT and many of the antidepressant drugs have similar effects on serotonergic transmission, they are notably different in the changes they induce in type 2 receptors for 5-hydroxytryptamine (5-HT).

A controlled study of alprazolam and propranolol in panic-disordered and agoraphobic outpatients.

We studied the efficacy of propranolol (Inderal) compared to alprazolam (Xanax) in 29 patients with a diagnosis of agoraphobia with panic disorder or panic disorder with or without limited phobic avoidance in a 6-week double-blind controlled experiment. Alprazolam is effective in those syndromes, whereas to date only negative or ambiguous results had been reported for propranolol. Fourteen patients received a mean daily dose of 5.