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Those battling depression may soon be able to turn to an unexpected new weapon: light.

A new study from the University of British Columbia in Canada found that when bright lights were paired with the antidepressant Prozac, patients reported a marked improvement in their mental health, according to UBC.

"These results are very exciting because light therapy is inexpensive, easy to access and use, and comes with few side effects," said Dr. Raymond Lam, a UBC professor and psychiatrist at the Djavad Mowafaghian Centre for Brain Health, a partnership between UBC and Vancouver Coastal Health. "Patients can easily use light therapy along with other treatments such as antidepressants and psychotherapy."

The study and its findings were published in the medical journal JAMA Psychiatry.

The researchers followed 122 patients and used light treatment to determine if it could help people with depression who either were or were not taking antidepressants. The light treatment involved sitting in front of a bright fluorescent light right after waking up every day for 8 weeks. Some patients were given antidepressants and some were given placebos.

While all of the patients showed some level of improvement from the light treatment, the light treatment had the greatest impact on those taking antidepressants. This is good news, however, because antidepressants only work in around 60 percent of the people taking them, so light treatment offers another avenue of treatment for those people that antidepressants don't work for.

"More and more people are seeking help because there is less stigma about having depression," said Lam. "It's important to find new treatments because our current therapies don't work for everyone. Our findings should help to improve the lives of people with depression."

Depression is thought to affect around 1 in 20 people worldwide.