Methodological concerns limiting the detection of treatment effects in the OSAN trial of blue-blocking glasses for mania
11 affiliations
- 1Department of Mental Health Care, Valen Hospital, Fonna Hospital Trust
- 2Department of Research and Innovation, Fonna Hospital Trust
- 3Division of Neuroscience, IRCCS Ospedale San Raffaele
- 4Psychiatric Division, Stavanger University Hospital
- 5Division of Psychiatry, Haukeland University Hospital
- 6Département de psychiatrie et d’addictologie, GHU Paris Nord, DMU Neurosciences NeuroDiderot, AP-HP, Université Paris Cité
- 7Chicago Psychiatry Associates
- 8Department of Mental Health, Norwegian University of Science and Technology
- 9DepressionEducation.org
- 10Mental Health Services Noord-Holland‐Noord
- 11Department of Clinical Science, Faculty of Medicine, University of Bergen
Abstract
Background This correspondence is a commentary to the recently published report from the OSAN trial by Fiedorowicz et al. but with applicability to the broader research involving blue-blocking glasses and patients in a manic episode. Method Clinical studies on dark therapy are still rare, and we read with great interest the report from the OSAN trial published in Journal of Affective Disorders the 1st of April 2026. Results The sample was significantly higher in manic symptoms, more medicated and less adherent to the intervention than in preceding studies on effects of dark therapy for mania. Efforts to comply with the gold standard of blinding of raters may have come with the cost of underestimating the symptom level. Extended intervention period (2 weeks) may have caused the extensive loss to follow up (35/42 (83%) at 2 weeks). Several issues with the statistical methods and data reporting make the results difficult to interpret. Conclusions The statistical power of the OSAN trial may have been substantially reduced by attrition and multiple sources of variance to the data. The results from the trial should be interpreted with caution.
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BibTeX
@article{henriksen2026methodological,
title = {{Methodological concerns limiting the detection of treatment effects in the OSAN trial of blue-blocking glasses for mania}},
author = {Tone Elise Gjøtterud Henriksen and Jörg Assmus and Barbara Barbini and Francesco Benedetti and Jeanette Solheimslid Bjørke and Ole Bernt Fasmer and Pierre Alexis Geoffroy and John Gottlieb and Håvard Kallestad and James Phelps and Ieva Ratke and Peter F.J. Schulte and Silje Skrede},
journal = {International Journal of Bipolar Disorders},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.1186/s40345-026-00446-6},
url = {https://doi.org/10.1186/s40345-026-00446-6},
note = {CC BY},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Methodological concerns limiting the detection of treatment effects in the OSAN trial of blue-blocking glasses for mania
AU - Tone Elise Gjøtterud Henriksen
AU - Jörg Assmus
AU - Barbara Barbini
AU - Francesco Benedetti
AU - Jeanette Solheimslid Bjørke
AU - Ole Bernt Fasmer
AU - Pierre Alexis Geoffroy
AU - John Gottlieb
AU - Håvard Kallestad
AU - James Phelps
AU - Ieva Ratke
AU - Peter F.J. Schulte
AU - Silje Skrede
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/25
JO - International Journal of Bipolar Disorders
DO - 10.1186/s40345-026-00446-6
UR - https://doi.org/10.1186/s40345-026-00446-6
AB - Background This correspondence is a commentary to the recently published report from the OSAN trial by Fiedorowicz et al. but with applicability to the broader research involving blue-blocking glasses and patients in a manic episode. Method Clinical studies on dark therapy are still rare, and we read with great interest the report from the OSAN trial published in Journal of Affective Disorders the 1st of April 2026. Results The sample was significantly higher in manic symptoms, more medicated and less adherent to the intervention than in preceding studies on effects of dark therapy for mania. Efforts to comply with the gold standard of blinding of raters may have come with the cost of underestimating the symptom level. Extended intervention period (2 weeks) may have caused the extensive loss to follow up (35/42 (83%) at 2 weeks). Several issues with the statistical methods and data reporting make the results difficult to interpret. Conclusions The statistical power of the OSAN trial may have been substantially reduced by attrition and multiple sources of variance to the data. The results from the trial should be interpreted with caution.
SN - 2194-7511
ER -