In response to local or systemic inflammation in a patient, photobiomodulation therapy is applied to a cardiac location to reduce the risk and/or occurrence of cardiac arrhythmia. Once inflammation is identified, photobiomodulation therapy can be applied in any suitable fashion (e.g., via a catheter- or transesophageal probe-mounted photoemitter, via an externally-applied photoemitter, or via photoemitter incorporated into an implantable medical device). Photobiomodulation therapy can also be employed to good advantage in conjunction with non-photobiomodulation therapy (e.g., traditional cardiac rhythm management therapies).