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The impact of bright light therapy on non-motor symptoms in patients with Parkinson's disease: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

Front Neurol · 2026-03-03

DOI: 10.3389/fneur.2026.1770673PMID: 41853181

Open accessSystematic Review; systematic-review; Journal ArticleOriginal source ↗

Research overview

The text below is the source article’s original abstract under a verified reuse license. cc by

BackgroundThe non-motor symptoms of Parkinson's patients seriously affect their quality of life. This meta-analysis intended to systematically examine the beneficial effect of bright light therapy (BLT) on non-motor symptoms in individuals with Parkinson's disease (PD).MethodsA systematic search was conducted in PubMed, Cochrane Library, Web of Science, Embase, Ovid Medline, China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), WanFang VIP and CBM to comprehensively collect RCTS and NRCTS relevant to BLT for Parkinson's disease. Data extraction and literature screening were carried out separately by two researchers, and used the RoB2 tool and ROBINS-I tool to evaluate the risk of bias for the two types of studies, respectively. Software such as RevMan5.4 and Stata 18.0 were used to analyze the data.ResultsCompared with dim light, BLT has a considerable benefit in improving the nighttime sleep of people with Parkinson's disease. However, its therapeutic effects on depression, anxiety, exhaustion, cognition, sleep quality and quality of life are not superior to those of dim light. Moreover, the distance of the light source will alter the therapeutic effect of BLT on nighttime sleep and daytime sleepiness.ResultsCompared with dim light, BLT has a considerable benefit in improving the nighttime sleep of people with PD. However, its therapeutic effects on depression, anxiety, fatigue, cognition, sleep quality and quality of life are not superior to those of dim light. Moreover, the distance of the light source will alter the therapeutic effect of BLT on nighttime sleep and daytime sleepiness.ConclusionBLT can be used to treat the non-motor symptoms of PD and may become a practical option for home self-management. However, the ideal therapy parameters (such as intensity, distance, cycle, etc.) still need further research.Systematic review registrationhttps://www.crd.york.ac.uk/PROSPERO/view/CRD420251047102, identifier (CRD420251047102).

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