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Abstract One week of light treatment was given to 17 patients with seasonal affective disorder, close to their times of episode onset in the fall or early winter. They were then withdrawn front treatment for up to 8 weeks while symptoms were monitored weekly. The clinical response to light was maintained for variable durations after termination of treatment, but symptoms ultimately returned for all subjects. Relapses—as defined by criterion scores on the Beck Depression Inventory, Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression, supplementary Atypical Symptom Scale, and combined SIGH‐SAD scale—occurred across 1–8 weeks of withdrawal. The duration of improvement during withdrawal was correlated with the date of episode onset: initiation of treatment later in the fall/winter season led to longer delays to relapse, and patients with longer episode durations (and earlier episode onset) tended to show accelerated relapse. We were unable to confirm the findings of Meesters et al. (J Affect Dis 23:15–19, 1991; J Affect Dis 29:41–48, 1993b), who concluded that 5 days of light therapy early in the episode succeeded in preventing the development of fully syndromal depression as well as relapse during withdrawal throughout the winter. Depression 2:20–31 (1994). © 1994 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Terman et al. (Sat,) studied this question.