Newsletter
July, 2011
Greetings!
Happy Fourth Everybody! I hope that you all have a nice holiday and that you spend some nice family time together. With that family time, and being in the summer - it's a GREAT time to get out there and exercise.
Not only is exercise good for your body, but it's good for your mind. A lot of you already know this because you're active, but for those of you that aren't I have reviewed an article below that may get you into exercise for the pure good of it in terms of your mood.
Remember, as I always say - it's not all about medication. It's about psychotherapy, relationships, medication, eating habits and exercise. Put all of that together and you really have something!
Enjoy!
Dr. L
Exercise as an Augmentation Treatment for Nonremitted Major Depressive Disorder: A Randomized, Parallel Dose Comparison.
Authors: Trivedi MH, Greer TL, Church TS, et. al. From the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry dated May 2011.
This study was done to try to see what other things could be done with patients with MDD that wasn't adding another medication. They used data from the TREAD (The treatment with Exercise Augmentation for Depression) study in this report. They wanted to see if aerobic exercise helped those with MDD that is not completely resolved with medication.
They put patients in 2 groups - one with some aerobic activity (walking 3 mph for 75 minutes per week) and one with more intense aerobic activity for longer (walking 4 mph for 210 minutes per week).
What they found was that those people that did the higher intensity exercise (men and women) did better than those in the lower physical activity group. They more specifically looked at men and women separately and whether or not the person had a family history of mental illness and found that for all men no matter if they have a family history or not - they do better with the higher level of exercise. Women with a history of mental illness in their family, on the other hand, didn't fair as well as women without a family history of mental illness.
So, what does this mean to you? Be more active. Get out there and push yourself to get better. I know that when you're feeling down, it's tough to do. At the same time - you're tough and you can do it! If you need some help, get your family involved. It's sunny out, so don't forget the sunscreen. Start out slow, but do it daily. Over time, you will be able to build up how much you do each day. Later on, when that's too easy you can add some resistance - either weights, or walking sticks, etc.
In any event, get out there or go to your local gym and work out some of that stress. You may be surprised at how much better you feel!
Until next time.
Sincerely,
Dr. L
