One way to solve the problem is to revise depression treatment plans by implementing programs to address important lifestyle factors in treatment and updating health education in public high schools. First, this revised depression treatment plan will involve an exercise program and food journal, to keep patients focused on the two most important lifestyle factors of physical activity and diet. All mental health service buildings should have a room refurbished for exercise purposes, filled with treadmills for patients’ physical activity. Patients will be expected to perform 30 minutes of physical activity at a time, twice a week, for a minimum treatment period of four months (or 16 weeks). To ensure that patients actually commit to their physical …show more content…
An exercise-based approach to depression treatment should show a large remission rate, of about 40% of patients, after just 16 weeks of physical activity (Blumenthal et al., 2007, p. 8). Along with this, in a study by Blumenthal et al. (2007) published in Psychosomatic Medicine, some study participants experienced a 50% reduction in depression symptoms after just the first week of treatment through physical activity (p. 9). So, in some cases this treatment may be extremely quick in producing results and otherwise will still be effective after just four …show more content…
Long-term treatment becomes practical, because patients do not have to depend entirely on their health care providers to maintain the behaviors learned in treatment. Patients can continue to exercise and eat healthy even without being in therapy, and will surely feel more comfortable doing so after committing to these for four months of treatment. Long-lasting treatment is necessary in those cases of depression that cannot seem to achieve full remission and therefore need lifelong maintenance of treatment. Once a person starts to actually feel better, and connects that progress to treatment, they most likely will not want to go back to their old habits in which they felt worse. In addition, this solution is natural and familiar due to its involvement of basic health concepts like exercising, eating healthy, going outside, or being social, but interesting because it makes a unique connection between mental health and lifestyle factors usually taken for
Million of Americans go through the blues and sad moments from clinical depression each year. Most patients with depression first seek treatment from a therapist or a primary care provider. However, exercise is a developmental behavior intervention that has displayed strong promise in alleviating symptoms of depression. The objective is examine whether physical activity is associated with depression in an average size population based on gender and age. A total of 310 participates ( 123 Male and 184 females and 3 other ) of UO students and other random volunteered to participate. All participants age ranged from 14 to 99, had to completed two self- report questionnaires. Besides answering question on their exercise habits during the past week, also took into account that all participants also completed CES-D questionnaire that determine their depression levels. In the surveyed there was a lower level of depression with more frequent weekly exercise give it a negative correlation. Also with the duration question, showed a significant negative correlation with the levels of depression. The efficiency of exercise in reducing depression cannot be determined because of the small size of participates and the lack of excellent quality research on population with adequate follow up
While the research of Blumenthal et al. (2007) focused on exercise being effective in reducing self-reported depressive symptoms, Diaz and Motta (2008) and Motta, Kuligowski, and Marino (2010) looked at the positive effects of exercise on depression, anxiety and PTSD. The theory of exercise’s positive effect on mental health has heavily been focused on
One of the studies showed that a combination of exercise and counseling was more effective than counseling alone (Rueter et al. 1982). Martinsen et al (1985) divided a group of 23 participants with clinical depression into two groups – (i) a control group of 14 patients and (ii) a exercise group of 9 patients who were given TCAs (Tricyclic antidepressants) to augment treatment. It was seen that both the group showed similar improvement in depressive symptoms. This does show that exercise has an impact that is as good as medication to lower depressive
A growing epidemic in America is depression. Physicians are able to prescribe drugs to help with the symptoms of depression, but other therapeutic methods have been studied and show great results in recovery. Therapeutic Physical Fitness has shown to reduce depression and anxiety. Ihas been confirmed through experiments that physical exercise can be as effective as antidepressant drugs and some cases suggest that it better prevents symptom recurrence.
Heladóttír, Hallgren, Ekblom, Forsell (2016) sought to find an optimal dosage of exercise to elicit positive responses in those diagnosed with depression using three varying intensities. With frequency and duration kept consistent, 620 participants, including ages 18 to 67, were randomly assigned different treatment groups. These included (1) continuing their usual treatment, (2) light exercise like yoga, (3) moderate aerobic exercise, and (4) vigorous aerobic exercise. The training program lasted for 12 weeks, requiring subjects to exercise 55 minutes 3 times a week. The researchers measured depression severity at baseline and post-treatment while monitoring heart rate during every session using a monitor. Following the conclusion of the study, the results indicated that depression severity decreased in al exercise groups. However, the optimal dosage for exercise prescription remains uncertain. These findings suggest that light exercise, such as yoga, were more beneficial than the other intensities
There is a recent debate is on the different treatment methods for depression and which are the most effective. The
Since 1990s, many scientists agree that exercise has positive impacts on people’s physical health and mental health (SIME WE, 1987). From Morgan and O’Connor’s research, people can reduce stress and state anxiety by doing physical activities; also gain emotional pleasure from the process (Morgan and O’Connor, 1988). Later in 1997, Landers states that physical activities can reduce people depression after weeks of regular and routine exercise. In addition, people can benefit from more
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 8% of persons over the age of twelve reports being currently depressed, this includes 6% of the male population (2014). This literature also reports males aged forty to fifty-nine having higher rates of depression (7%), when compared to males sixty years or older (5%) (2014). In 2010 there were 63.3 million visits to primary care physicians, hospital outpatient units and emergency rooms attributed to mental health diagnosis (CDC, 2014). In the same year, there were 395,000 psychiatric inpatient discharges with major depressive disorder as the primary diagnosis. These individuals had an average stay of six and a half days (CDC, 2014). Inpatient and outpatient treatment is seemingly a revolving door. One article examines the growing number of people being diagnosed with depression, yet the declining number of people seeking outpatient care. This article reports 2.88 out of 100 people seek outpatient treatment for their depression (ScienceDaily, 2010). It is imperative for practitioners of group practice to understand that men and women experience depression differently and to then formulate treatment based on the individual’s unique needs (NIH, 2014).
In people with depression medication is often used to start the treatment but patients who adopted a workout plan, were able to decrease their medication or stop taking it altogether.
The mechanisms responsible for creating this lowering effect of depression are unknown, but there is strong evidence for an association between enhanced physical activity and exercising and positive benefits on mental health
These researches are however mostly dedicated to single exercise types. It is therefore necessary to examine these research literatures and data collected from the work of previous scholars with the aims of synthesizing all the available exercise types, and determining their roles in improving the moods of people with depression. Results from the current study will also serve as a tool for the psychoeducation of counselors, and clients with
James et al. (2007) noticed exercise has showed similar effect like antidepressant medication in reducing symptoms of depression in over 156 older MDD patients in his research study. They used graded treadmill exercise testing to check the fitness levels of all the patients before treatment . Researchers compared the effect of exercise on the symptoms of patient’s depression by involving participants in 4 groups .One group is under supervision and the other group involved in a home based program. The other two groups were under antidepressant medications Both exercise groups participated in 30minutes aerobic session such as walking or jogging on a treadmill including 10mins warm up at the beginning and 5 mins cool down at the end. james also mentioned that all the participants were monitored 3 times during their exercise session by checking their heart rates manually via radial pulses, along with ratings of perceived exertion and the home-based exercise group have been followed up by an exerxise physiologist monthly and taking feedback via phone calls every week in the first month and therafter
This report aims to determine the efficacy and benefits of exercise in the management of depression, which is classified by the World Health Organisation as a mood disorder. In order to place exercise therapy into context, conventional methods for treating clinical depression are discussed. A personal meta-analysis is then undertaken, summarising the findings of studies that have explored the clinical significance of physical exercise as an intervention in treating depression. The advantages and disadvantages of such an intervention are described, and
They found that an exercise training programme could be an alternative treatment for MDD. Although antidepressants had a more rapid response than exercise, after 16 weeks of exercise the effectiveness in reducing depression was equal to the anti-depressants. A study also found that a single bout of exercise could result in substantial improvements in mood, which shows that it’s not just duration and frequency. However, it may be that the improvement in mood is only temporary (Dimeo et al., 2001). Lawler and Hopker (2001) stated that effectiveness of exercise on depression couldn’t be determined due to lack of quality research based on clinical populations. They also wrote that the explanations of the results may have been that depressed patients who did regular exercise could have got positive feedback from other people and a sense of self worth, which may act as a diversion from negative thoughts. Physical activity was found to be linked with less coexisting depression, which remains the same after controlling for gender, age, and race. The results of the study showed that physical activity is helpful with medical problems, life stressors and quality of sleep (Harris et al., 2006).
Exercise may be one of the most important influences on your overall health to date. While the only benefits that are mainly focused on are the physical benefits, significant psychological impacts can also be linked to exercise. Although some of these benefits aren’t viewed with much enthusiasm, studies have proven that exercise can actually improve one’s quality of life greatly by increasing not only their physical health but their mental health as well. It is because of this that exercise is a