Arguably, the most confusing thing about MAOIs is keeping track of which medication is “tranylcypromine” and which is “phenelzine.” The following mnemonics work for Dr. Carlat, and perhaps they will for you.

Dr. Cole, you have been involved in some of the seminal research in psychopharmacology over the years, including some of the early studies of MAOIs. One of the things that I’ve heard is that the early studies of MAOIs were not very impressive. Is that true?

After reading these articles, you should be able to…

How convincing is the evidence that light therapy actually works? The pace of research on bright light therapy has accelerated over the last few years, and recently, two meta-analyses of this research have been published, one in the American Journal of Psychiatry, and the other in the web-based Cochrane Library.

f you haven’t started hearing about the “benefits” of blue light therapy yet, you will soon. Blue light boosters argue that it is more effective than white light, and that it is the therapeutic ingredient of standard white light that eases seasonal depression.

Since I had never actually seen a light box in the flesh, I asked some of the larger companies to send me samples for a “review”—not for efficacy but for such qualities as convenience, asthetics, pleasantness, etc…

Wellbutrin XL was approved for the prevention of Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD), based on the results three studies in which over 1,000 patients with SAD (but who were well at study entry) were randomly assigned to either Wellbutrin XL 150 to 300 mg QD or placebo. Do insurance companies pay for light boxes? Many of them do … or at least they say they do!

Dr. Rosenthal, as the “father” of light therapy, how did you got interested in doing research on seasonal affective disorder?

After reading these articles, you should be able to…

Recently three new psychostimulant formulations have been approved (Daytrana, the Ritalin patch, and Focalin XR), and one older medication received a new indication (Adderall XR is now indicated for adult ADHD).