A reader asks:

I seem to have reverse SAD–every year I get depressed in April and it gets worse until end of summer. I feel my best from September to March. Would negative air ion therapy be of any help to me? I almost feel like shutting myself in a dark, cool room to get relief.

Answer:

A small minority of people with seasonality experience summers worst and winters best. There have been no clinical trials on the effectiveness of negative air ion therapy in this group. Possibly it might work–and if so, it could be preferable to the use of antidepressant drugs. One encouraging lead comes from a recent study of patients with chronic depression, who are depressed all year long, without seasonality. Interestingly, many of them did respond to negative air ion therapy, even during the summer. So, we think it’s worth a try under clinical supervision.