What does "phototherapy" mean?

The use of light to treat disorders of the skin, and certain mood disorders.

Phototherapy

Common synonyms include: light therapy, luminotherapy, occupational therapy, photobiomodulation, photobiomodulation, phototherapeutics.

noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Noun

1
The use of light to treat disorders of the skin, and certain mood disorders. countable, uncountable
2
the use of strong light to treat acne or hyperbilirubinemia of the newborn wordnet

"When autumn comes, many people suffer from a mild form of depression that could be treated with phototherapy."

From photo- + therapy.

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.