Light Therapy Study for Adults with Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder and Late Bedtimes

What this Trial Is About

Researchers are evaluating whether light therapy can reduce symptoms in young adults aged 18 to 35 with obsessive-compulsive disorder OCD and late bedtimes of 1am or later. The study aims to determine if light therapy advances the circadian clock and whether a higher dose of light therapy is more effective than a lower dose in symptom reduction. This early phase 1 trial is sponsored by Washington University School of Medicine. Participants will be randomly assigned to wear wearable light therapy glasses emitting either a higher or lower light intensity for one hour each morning after waking, over a period of five weeks. Alongside using the light therapy devices, participants will keep a daily log of their therapy use. This parallel design study compares the effects of these two doses. During the study, participants will track their sleep daily using a wearable monitor and an electronic sleep diary for five weeks. They will complete a one-time assessment of sensitivity to light exposure and fill out self-report measures of OCD symptoms four times daily at baseline over two weeks, mid-treatment one week, and at the end of treatment one week. Researchers will measure OCD symptoms using the Yale Brown Obsessive-Compulsive Scale and the Daily Perseverative Thinking Questionnaire, as well as circadian melatonin phase before and after treatment.

Light Therapy for Obsessive-compulsive Disorder (OCD)