["Seasonal" hyperkinetic disorder in adolescence: Improvement of symptomatology caused by additional light therapy]

There is an increasing number of antidepressants as well as not-phramacological therapies for treatment of major depressive disorders. Despite of this fact, there are still some treatment-resistant patients, who do not respond neither on antidepressants nor on antipsychotics (Wender 1988). Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (Peschina et al. 2001), electroconvulsive therapy (Konig et al. 1991) and vagus nerve stimulation are some effective treatment options for those patients. For seasonal depressions light therapy has been proven to be effective. Actually Methylphenidate is in use for hyperkinetic and narcoleptic patients (Steinhausen 1995), but seems also to be effective for major depressive disorders as an add-on therapy (Sachdev et al. 2000). Steinhausen (1995) report a response rate among hyperkinetic patients of 75% and a lower one among depressive patients. This case report describes an 15 yr old patient with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, who was initially treated psychopharmacologically (electroconvulsive therapy, vagus nerve stimulation and repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation were refused) without a significant improvement. After having explored the seasonal association of the symptomatology, additional light therapy brought a remarkable improvement.