Tag: depression
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Averting Depression Through Participation in Team Sports
Numerous prior studies of exercise and mental health have found that consistent exercise can reduce depression and improve feelings of physical and psychological well-being. Studies have shown that both aerobic and resistance exercise can produce this effect and, in some cases, reduce or eliminate the need for pharmacologic interventions. These benefits have been found to…
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Smartphone Apps for Psychotherapy: Can They Offer Relief and Hope?
Technological advancements are transforming many industries, including supporting patients with a variety of mental disorders. The sad reality is that many patients who need and/or want psychotherapy cannot receive it due to cost, time or location constraints, or simply a lack of available therapists. To address this gap in service delivery and to provide timely…
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Empowering Depressed Adolescents: The Transformative Role of Exercise
While there are well-established treatment options for depressed adolescents, these treatments often come with significant costs or drawbacks. Anti-depressants have side effects, including “weight gain, sleep disturbance, and reproductive dysfunction” whereas psychotherapy “is associated with perceived stigma for attending the therapist” (p. 2). By comparison, exercise has been proven to reduce depression in adults in…
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Lavender: An Over-the-Counter Treatment for Depression
Its effects on anxiety are already well-established—does it also help with depression? Lavender was the topic of a previous post about alternative treatments for anxiety and depression. That post summarized randomized controlled trials testing the use of lavender in various forms (tea, massage oil, pill, and inhalation) to reduce anxiety and depression symptoms. In another…
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Does Religion Improve Mental and Physical Health?
So far, many studies have been published on the impact of religion, spirituality, and prayer in helping people recover from illness or injury. These studies have been ongoing since the 1980s and have become more advanced, using scientific methods to understand how religion affects health. However, because of variations in study quality and small sample…
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Can Lavender Treat Anxiety and Depression? The Shocking Results!
With a large segment of the population suffering from depression, anxiety, or both, treatment options continue to grow. Alternative treatments, especially non-invasive ones, are of particular interest to researchers and patients. The effectiveness of alternative treatments, as well as side effects and length of treatment, continue to be explored in clinical settings. Kim and colleagues…