Talk:Chromotherapy

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Ideal sources for Wikipedia's health content are defined in the guideline Wikipedia:Identifying reliable sources (medicine) and are typically review articles. Here are links to possibly useful sources of information about Chromotherapy.

PubMed provides review articles from the past five years (limit to free review articles)
The TRIP database provides clinical publications about evidence-based medicine.
Other potential sources include: Centre for Reviews and Dissemination and CDC

Include references to peer-reviewed journal articles

The page relies primarily on subjective opinions about Chromotherapy presented in books. It would be important to include references to recent peer-reviewed journal articles. An edit was made here to include this but was reverted (https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Chromotherapy&diff=prev&oldid=1281941942). Objectiveanalysis (talk) 12:28, 23 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

See WP:MEDRS for biomedical sourcing standards, and WP:FRINGE and WP:FRINGESUBJECTS for how Wikipedia deals with pseudosciences like these. Bon courage (talk) 12:30, 23 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you for sharing WP:MEDRS and WP:FRINGE. I have reviewed those and it has added to my concerns about the current references on the Chromotherapy page. The article in its present state relies heavily on opinions from multiple older books (the majority of which are pre-2010), which do not meet WP:MEDRS guidelines of peer-reviewed secondary sources and the requirement that they must accurately reflect current knowledge.

The recent surveys and systematic reviews on chromotherapy do not support the claims regarding its pseudoscientific nature. By relying primarily on non-peer-reviewed sources and omitting recent evidence, the article in its current state does not provide an objective overview of chromotherapy.

Here is a list of a few recent publications on the efficacy of chromotherapy, including primary (randomized clinical trials, case studies) and secondary sources (literature and systematic reviews), that I was able to find through Google Scholar.

Source list

Primary

- Vanuk, J. R., Pace-Schott, E. F., Bullock, A., Esbit, S., Dailey, N. S., & Killgore, W. D. (2022). Morning blue light treatment improves sleep complaints, symptom severity, and retention of fear extinction memory in post-traumatic stress disorder. Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience, 16, 886816.

- Alkozei, A., Dailey, N. S., Bajaj, S., Vanuk, J. R., Raikes, A. C., & Killgore, W. D. (2021). Exposure to blue wavelength light is associated with increases in bidirectional amygdala-DLPFC connectivity at rest. Frontiers in Neurology, 12, 625443.

- Minguillon, J., Lopez-Gordo, M. A., Renedo-Criado, D. A., Sanchez-Carrion, M. J., & Pelayo, F. (2017). Blue lighting accelerates post-stress relaxation: Results of a preliminary study. PloS one, 12(10), e0186399.

- Strong, R. E., Marchant, B. K., Reimherr, F. W., Williams, E., Soni, P., & Mestas, R. (2009). Narrow‐band blue‐light treatment of seasonal affective disorder in adults and the influence of additional nonseasonal symptoms. Depression and anxiety, 26(3), 273-278.

- Emani, R., Ghavami, H., Radfar, M., & Reza Khalkhali, H. (2020). Impact of chromotherapy on professional quality of life in intensive care unit nurses: a randomized controlled trial. Fatigue: Biomedicine, Health & Behavior, 8(3), 121-129.

- Suarez, A., Delgado, Y., Servais, A., Verardi, N., Durand, D., Litaneur, S., ... & Nguyen, J. P. (2024). Effects of Combining Music Therapy, Light Therapy, and Chromotherapy in the Treatment of Chronic Pain Patients: A Pilot Study. Evidence‐Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine, 2024(1), 3006352.

Secondary

- Srisurapanont, K., Samakarn, Y., Kamklong, B., Siratrairat, P., Bumiputra, A., Jaikwang, M., & Srisurapanont, M. (2021). Blue-wavelength light therapy for post-traumatic brain injury sleepiness, sleep disturbance, depression, and fatigue: A systematic review and network meta-analysis. PLoS One, 16(2), e0246172.

- Azeemi, S. T. Y., Rafiq, H. M., Ismail, I., Kazmi, S. R., & Azeemi, A. (2019). The mechanistic basis of chromotherapy: Current knowledge and future perspectives. Complementary therapies in medicine, 46, 217-222.

- Aust, B., Leduc, C., Cresswell-Smith, J., O’Brien, C., Rugulies, R., Leduc, M., ... & Greiner, B. A. (2024). The effects of different types of organisational workplace mental health interventions on mental health and wellbeing in healthcare workers: a systematic review. International archives of occupational and environmental health, 97(5), 485-522.

- Bayat, M., Albright, R., Hamblin, M. R., & Chien, S. (2022). Impact of blue light therapy on wound healing in preclinical and clinical subjects: A systematic review. Journal of Lasers in Medical Sciences, 13, e69.

- Srisurapanont, K., Samakarn, Y., Kamklong, B., Siratrairat, P., Bumiputra, A., Jaikwang, M., & Srisurapanont, M. (2022). Efficacy and acceptability of blue-wavelength light therapy for post-TBI behavioral symptoms: A systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials. Plos one, 17(10), e0274025.

While this article would need a significant revision according to the latest evidence, the sourcing must be updated at first to incorporate the recent systematic reviews. We should revise or remove older claims as well, particularly those asserting the pseudoscientific nature of chromotherapy, if they conflict with the findings of these newer studies (as I did in the previous edit). This update will ensure the entry is compliant with WP:MEDRS guidelines.

I can make the edits and submit them once we agree on the changes that should be made. Objectiveanalysis (talk) 18:05, 23 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

CAM journal are generally unreliable and PLOS ONE is a poor source. Is there some specific text you want to make sourced to a proposed reliable source? For anything on pseudoscience, you would need a source specifically addressing the pseudoscience issue. Bon courage (talk) 18:15, 23 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Not all sources that I provided above are from PLOS ONE or CAM. Additionally, the highly cited ones from PLOS or CAM can't be disregarded as being from 'generally unreliable' or 'poor' journals here, especially compared to the sources that are already cited in the article (most of which are books).

The primary issue with the current state of this article is that it fails to acknowledge any available audience regarding the efficacy of chromotherapy, which is in contrast to WP:MEDRS which mentions that the sources must accurately reflect current knowledge. This provides a distorted view of the field to the readers.

Additionally, WP:MEDRS states: The best evidence for efficacy of treatments and other health interventions comes mainly from meta-analyses of randomized controlled trials (RCTs), and I have already provided one on blue-wavelength light therapy for post-TBI. Objectiveanalysis (talk) 18:26, 23 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Wikipedia can and does disregard weak/fake/fringe journals. If for blue-wavelength light you mean PMID:36201498, then it isn't about chromotherapy; it doesn't even mention it. Chromotherapy is a pure quackery. Bon courage (talk) 18:35, 23 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

> Wikipedia can and does disregard weak/fake/fringe journals.

The current article contains several references and opinions directly from books, and does not cite a single peer-reviewed article directly. The sources that I provided above are not from fake or fringe journals, or opinions from books.

Wikipedia explicitly recommends using verifiable secondary sources over primary or opinion-based references. On the contrary, there is already already a significantly large (and growing) body of scientific evidence on the therapeutic effects of narrow-band visible range radiation (colours).

> It isn't about chromotherapy; it doesn't even mention it.

This is completely inaccurate. Chromotherapy, by definition, is a treatment modality that uses visible spectrum of electromagnetic radiation (colors) to cure diseases [1][2][3][4]. Any study that uses narrow-band wavelengths in the visible region falls under the regimen of chromotherapy, and not under any other treatment modality. Some studies directly use the word 'chromotherapy' or 'colour therapy', some refer to it as the 'visible range radiation therapy', and others simply refer to the wavelength / colour that is used, e.g., 'blue light therapy' or 'red light therapy'.

[1] A critical analysis of chromotherapy and its scientific evolution. Evidence‐Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine.

[2] The mechanistic basis of chromotherapy: Current knowledge and future perspectives. Complementary therapies in medicine.

[3] Effect of chromotherapy on the anxiety level in the patients undergoing endodontic treatment: A randomized clinical study. Journal of Conservative Dentistry and Endodontics.

[4] Blue lighting accelerates post-stress relaxation: Results of a preliminary study. PloS one. Objectiveanalysis (talk) 19:25, 23 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

> Chromotherapy is a pure quackery.

This statement overlooks substantial scientific evidence that has emerged in the past decade. Over 100 peer-reviewed studies have demonstrated measurable benefits of narrow-band visible-range radiation (chromotherapy) in various therapeutic contexts. At the minimum, this article should be edited to provide a reader with this viewpoint as well with direct references to systematic reviews and verifiable secondary sources. Objectiveanalysis (talk) 19:38, 23 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]