Gbyl Krzysztof, Østergaard Madsen Helle, Dunker Svendsen Signe, Petersen Paul Michael, Hageman Ida, Volf Carlo, Martiny Klaus
Psychiatric Center Copenhagen, University of Copenhagen, Rigshospitalet, Copenhagen, Denmark.
Neuropsychobiology. 2016;74(4):193-201. doi: 10.1159/000477249. Epub 2017 Jun 22.
Improvement in patients admitted to inpatient wards with severe depression is slow, and such patients are often discharged with residual symptoms which put them at risk for relapse. New treatments that can speed up recovery are highly desired. This naturalistic follow-up study in a specialized affective disorders unit investigated the impact of daylight on the length of hospital stay and improvement of depression.
For a period of 1 year, we collected data on sociodemographics, length of stay, vitamin D, and depression severity for patients in an inpatient affective disorders unit. The ward is located with one facade that faces southeast (SE); the opposite one faces northwest (NW) and receives far less light and no direct sunlight during winter.
SE-facing rooms received far more daylight than NW-facing rooms. The length of stay was significantly lower in the SE rooms, i.e., 29.2 (±26.8) versus 58.8 (±42.0) days in the NW rooms (p = 0.01). There was a statistically nonsignificant greater reduction of 52.2% in depression severity for the patients staying in the SE rooms compared to 42.2% in the NW rooms, which may nevertheless be clinically relevant.
Due to the study design, no causality for the observed difference in length of stay can be given, but the results support findings in previous studies of the importance of architectural orientation providing natural daylight as a factor for improvement.
重度抑郁症住院患者的康复进程缓慢，且往往在仍有残留症状的情况下出院，这使他们面临复发风险。因此，急需能够加速康复的新疗法。这项在专业情感障碍病房开展的自然随访研究，探讨了日光对住院时间及抑郁症改善情况的影响。
在1年的时间里，我们收集了住院情感障碍病房患者的社会人口统计学资料、住院时间、维生素D水平及抑郁严重程度的数据。该病房有一面朝东南（SE），另一面朝西北（NW），冬季时，朝向西北的那面接收的光线少得多，且没有直射阳光。
朝东南的房间比朝西北的房间接收的日光多得多。朝东南房间的住院时间显著更短，即分别为29.2（±26.8）天和58.8（±42.0）天（p = 0.01）。与朝西北房间的患者相比，朝东南房间患者的抑郁严重程度降低幅度更大，为52.2%，而朝西北房间患者为42.2%，尽管这一差异在统计学上无显著意义，但仍可能具有临床相关性。
由于本研究的设计，无法确定观察到的住院时间差异的因果关系，但结果支持先前研究中关于建筑朝向提供自然日光作为改善因素的重要性的发现。
