Depression

Treat Back Pain with Yoga

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 “Yoga teaches us to cure what need not be endured and endure what cannot be cured.” ~B.K.S. Iyengar

 

Low Back Pain affects a wide swath of humanity (6% to 15%) and is the leading cause of disability worldwide. It affects almost everyone with 80% of the population experiencing back pain sometime during their lives. There are varied treatments for low back pain including chiropractic care, acupuncture, biofeedback, physical therapy, cognitive behavioral therapy, massage, surgery, opiate pain killing drugs, steroid injections, and muscle relaxant drugs.

 

The therapies are sometimes effective particularly for acute back pain. But, for chronic conditions the treatments are less effective and often require continuing treatment for years. Obviously, there is a need for effective treatments for low back pain that are low cost and don’t have troublesome side effects. Since many yoga poses focus on stretching and strengthen in the back, it makes sense that yoga practice when done properly should be helpful for low-back pain. Indeed, Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) which includes yoga practice is effective for low back pain http://contemplative-studies.org/wp/index.php/2015/10/17/control-low-back-pain-with-mindfulness/.

 

In today’s Research News article “Evaluation of the Effectiveness and Efficacy of Iyengar Yoga Therapy on Chronic Low Back Pain”

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http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4393557/

Williams and colleagues examine the effectiveness of 24 weeks of Iyengar yoga practice on adults who have been suffering from low-back pain for longer than 3 months. They randomly assigned participants to either yoga practice or to receive standard medical care.

 

They found that the pain sufferers who participated in yoga had a 42% greater reduction in pain intensity than the group receiving standard medical care. This resulted in a trend toward a greater reduction in the use of pain medications in the yoga group. Importantly, the yoga participants showed a 24% greater improvement in their ability to carry on with normal activities, with a larger number of yoga participants having a clinically significant decrease in functional disability. In addition, the yoga participants showed a large, 47%, reduction in depression levels in comparison to the standard medical care participants. These effects were produced without any significant adverse effects and were still present 6-months after the conclusion of the active treatment.

 

These results confirm that yoga practice is a safe and effective treatment that produces long-term improvements in chronic low-back pain and in turn improves the patients’ abilities to carry on everyday activities and in turn reduces depression. This also appears to reduce the individuals use of drugs to treat their pain symptoms. Yoga has so many beneficial effects (see http://contemplative-studies.org/wp/index.php/category/contemplative-practice/yoga-contemplative-practice/) in addition to the assistance with pain that it would seem to be an almost ideal treatment.

 

So, practice yoga and improve low-back pain and disability.

 

“Hatha is the sanctuary for those suffering every type of pain. It is the foundation for those practicing every type of Yoga.” ~Svatmarama

 

CMCS – Center for Mindfulness and Contemplative Studies

 

Yoga Improves Stress Responses and Mood

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“Yoga has a sly, clever way of short circuiting the mental patterns that cause anxiety.” – Baxter Bell

 

Depression and anxiety are great scourges on humankind. They affect millions of people worldwide decreasing productivity and increasing misery. The exact etiology of these disorders is unknown. But, modern research is slowly unraveling the mystery. One promising line of inquiry is investigating the linkage of depression and anxiety with the physiological responses to stress including stress hormone responses and the inflammatory response. Depression has been long known to be associated with increased stress hormone activity and increased inflammatory response. This raises the question as to what role the stress response plays in the development of depression.

 

The most common treatment for depression is antidepressant drugs. They are effective for some people and are also known to reduce the stress response and inflammation. But, they are not effective for everyone and they can have some unpleasant side effects. So, alternative treatment for depression and anxiety that are safe, effective and with few side effects are needed.

 

Yoga practice has been shown to reduce anxiety and depression (see http://contemplative-studies.org/wp/index.php/2015/09/03/keep-up-yoga-practice-for-anxiety-and-depression/) and to reduce stress and anxiety (see http://contemplative-studies.org/wp/index.php/2015/07/29/get-your-calm-on/). Yoga has also been shown to reduce inflammation (see http://contemplative-studies.org/wp/index.php/2015/09/11/reduce-inflammation-with-yoga/) and http://contemplative-studies.org/wp/index.php/2015/08/27/control-inflammation-with-mind-body-practices/) and immune system balance (see http://contemplative-studies.org/wp/index.php/2015/07/17/healthy-balance-through-yoga/). So, it would seem that the practice of yoga is potentially an alternative to antidepressant drug treatment for depression.

 

In today’s Research News article “A systematic review of randomised control trials on the effects of yoga on stress measures and mood”

https://www.facebook.com/ContemplativeStudiesCenter/photos/a.628903887133541.1073741828.627681673922429/1115024035188188/?type=3&theater

Pascoe and colleagues review 24 randomized controlled trials investigating the effectiveness of yoga practice for depression and anxiety and their linkages to the stress and inflammatory responses. They found that the published literature provided evidence that yoga practice reduces depression and anxiety and the stress and inflammatory responses.

 

In particular, Pascoe and colleagues report that the evidence suggests that yoga practice reduces anxiety and depression and at the same time reduces the nervous systems responses to stress as indicated by reductions in heart rate and blood pressure and by reductions in the levels of the stress hormone, cortisol. There was also reported to be a decrease in cytokine levels suggesting a decrease in the inflammatory response. Hence, yoga practice appears to be effective for anxiety and depression and reduces the associated stress and inflammatory responses.

 

Since, changes in depression and anxiety occurred at the same time as changes in stress and inflammatory responses, it strengthens the case of a causal link between the two. More research is need to further investigate this promising linkage.

 

So, yoga practice is a safe and effective treatment for anxiety and depression while reducing stress and inflammation.

 

“The yoga mat is a good place to turn when talk therapy and antidepressants aren’t enough.” – Amy Weintraub

 

CMCS – Center for Mindfulness and Contemplative Studies

Improve Diabetes Psychological Well-Being with Mindfulness

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“I am a type-2 diabetic, and they took me off medication simply because I ate right and exercised. Diabetes is not like a cancer, where you go in for chemo and radiation. You can change a lot through a basic changing of habits.” – Sherri Shepherd

 

It is estimated that 30 million people in the United States have diabetes and the numbers are growing. Diabetes is the 7th leading cause of death in the United States. In addition, diabetes is heavily associated with other diseases such as cardiovascular disease, heart attacks, stroke, blindness, kidney disease, and circulatory problems leading to amputations. As a result, diabetes doubles the risk of death of any cause compared to individuals of the same age without diabetes.

 

Depression affects people with diabetes more often than people without it — up to 15 percent compared with 6.7 percent in the general population. When depression occurs along with a chronic illness like diabetes, the symptoms tend to be more severe. Compounding the problem further, the symptoms can become worse as depression can lead to missing medication doses, overeating, or skipping exercise. This may mean poorer blood glucose control, which, in turn, means more long-term health complications.

 

So, in treating diabetes it is important to treat not only the physical problem but also the psychological problems such as depression. Mindfulness training, especially Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) has been demonstrated to be effective in treating depression (see http://contemplative-studies.org/wp/index.php/2015/08/15/spiraling-up-with-mindfulness/ and http://contemplative-studies.org/wp/index.php/2015/07/17/dealing-with-major-depression-when-drugs-fail/).

 

In today’s Research News article “Individual Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy for People with Diabetes: a Pilot Randomized Controlled Trial”

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Schroevers and colleagues examined whether an individualized version of MBCT might be effective for depression in people with diabetes. In comparison to diabetic patients on a waiting list, MBCT resulted in clinically significant reductions in depressive symptoms and diabetes related psychological distress and increases in the levels of acting with awareness and attention regulation. These improvements were still present three months after completing the program.

 

These are impressive results and suggest that MBCT is an effective treatment for the psychological issues that frequently accompany diabetes. MBCT may be effective due to its emphasis on the present moment in mindfulness. Depression is often rooted in the past and the individual ruminates about the misery of the past. By shifting focus to the present moment, mindfulness can move the individual from being preoccupied with a troubling past to being focused  on addressing the manageable problems in the present. Indeed, Schroevers and colleagues demonstrated that MBCT produces an increase in acting with awareness. The individual then is more aware of what they’re doing. For the depressed diabetic individual this can help in the recognition of how he/she is acting in response to the depression or the diabetes. This allows them to reprogram their responses to be more appropriate to the circumstances of the present rather than responding to the depression itself.

 

Mindfulness also stresses non-judgmental awareness of the present. There is a decreased tendency to be constantly judging what is happening and instead just accept it as what is. This reduces worrying. Indeed, mindfulness practice has been shown to reduce worry (see http://contemplative-studies.org/wp/index.php/2015/07/17/stop-worrying/). Since worry involves concerns about future occurrences to some extent based upon past experiences, the more one can focus on the present the less opportunity there is for worries to arise. Mindfulness training also trains the individual to accept the worry, experience it, and then move on. This reduces the impact of the worry and prevents the development of worrying about worrying.

 

Another possibility is mindfulness’ ability to increase emotion regulation. That is mindfulness assists the individual in recognizing emotions as they arise and not over respond to them. It doesn’t prevent emotions. It simply allows the individual to better deal with them when they do arise. So when depression occurs the individual can recognize it, accept it, and then let it go and not respond to it. This liberates the individual to find new ways of responding to the environment and other people.

 

So, be mindful and improve psychological well-being with diabetes.

 

“Life is not over because you have diabetes. Make the most of what you have, be grateful.” – Dale Evans

 

CMCS – Center for Mindfulness and Contemplative Studies

 

ACT for Depression in Childhood Diabetes

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“Self-acceptance means you refuse to buy into your judgments your mind makes about you, whether they’re good judgments or bad ones. Instead of judging yourself, you recognize your strengths and your weaknesses, and you do what you can to be the person you want to be.” – Russ Harris

 

There is an image, a societal meme, of childhood being a time of great happiness, fancifulness, freedom, creativity, and play. But, the reality is frequently starkly different. It has been estimated that 2% to 4% of children are depressed. This is particularly true with children under intense stress from childhood illness, particularly chronic illness. Indeed, 2.4% of children suffer from childhood diabetes. The day to day struggle with diabetes and the feelings that they are burdens on the family frequently produces depression in these children.

 

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) has been shown to be effective for depression in adults (see http://contemplative-studies.org/wp/index.php/2015/09/17/act-for-depression/). ACT employs mindfulness practices to increase awareness and develop an attitude of acceptance and compassion in the presence of painful thoughts and feelings. Additionally, ACT helps people strengthen aspects of cognition such as in committing to living according to their values. It is not known, however, if ACT is effective for depression in diabetic children

 

In today’s Research News article “Effectiveness of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy for Depression, Psychological Well-Being and Feeling of Guilt in 7 – 15 Years Old Diabetic Children”

https://www.facebook.com/ContemplativeStudiesCenter/photos/a.628903887133541.1073741828.627681673922429/1111453218878603/?type=3&theater

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4575800/

Moghanloo and colleagues provided ACT modified for children and adolescents in ten weekly sessions to a randomly assigned group of 7-15 year old diabetic children. The change from before to after was compared to a no intervention control group of children. They found that the children treated with ACT reported lower depression and feelings of guilt and had improved psychological well-being. The effects sizes were large and clinically meaningful. Hence, ACT appeared to be effective in children as it’s been shown to be in adults.

 

It should be noted that there was no follow-up to determine if the effects persisted after the end of active therapy. Also, since the control group did not receive psychological treatment of any kind, it is impossible to determine if ACT is particularly effective or any form of therapy would have worked as well.

 

Like most mindfulness techniques ACT is targeted to improving awareness and acceptance of experiences in the present moment. These include emotions. This may be particularly important in children. By making the children more aware of how they’re feeling and why, they may become better able to deal with and accept these sometimes overpowering emotions. In addition, ACT supplies tools to look at their own thoughts about their disease and psychological state and recognize, accept, and form a different relationship with them. This allows the individual to be more psychologically flexible and mindful. In this way ACT can assist the children in coping with not only their emotions but also their disease and thoughts about it in a more accepting and productive fashion.

 

So, ACT for depression in childhood diabetes.

 

“We have not passed that subtle line between childhood and adulthood until… we have stopped saying “It got lost,” and say “I lost it.” – Sydney J Harris

 

CMCS – Center for Mindfulness and Contemplative Studies

 

Improve Well-being with HIV with Mindfulness

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“People wait in line to see me, saying there’s plenty of living to be done even if you have an HIV diagnosis. People say they are 10- or 15-year survivors and still moving forward.” – Greg Louganis

 

More than 35 million people worldwide and 1.2 million people in the United States are living with HIV infection. In 1996, the advent of the protease inhibitor and the so-called cocktail changed the prognosis for HIV. Since this development a 20 year old infected with HIV can now expect to live on average to age 69. Hence, living with HIV is a long-term reality for a very large group of people.

 

People living with HIV infection experience a wide array of physical and psychological symptoms which decrease their perceived quality of life. The symptoms include muscle aches, depression, weakness, fear/worries, difficulty with concentration, concerns regarding the need to interact with a complex healthcare system, stigma, and the challenge to come to terms with a new identity as someone living with HIV. Hence there is a need to find methods to improve the quality of life in people who are living with HIV infection.

 

Mindfulness has been shown to improve psychological and physical well-being in people suffering from a wide range of disorders (see http://contemplative-studies.org/wp/index.php/2015/07/17/why-is-mindfulness-so-beneficial/ and http://contemplative-studies.org/wp/index.php/2015/07/17/how-do-mindfulness-based-interventions-improve-mental-health/). So, it would stand to reason that mindfulness would also be beneficial for people who are living with HIV infection.

 

In today’s Research News article “Dispositional mindfulness in people with HIV: Associations with psychological and physical health”

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Moskowitz and colleagues investigated the mindfulness, appraisal, positive and negative affect, coping, and indicators of psychological well-being and physical health of a group of primarily male HIV positive individuals. They found that mindfulness has significantly associated with a number of positive indicators of psychological well-being. HIV infected individuals who were high in mindfulness were found to have lower depression, lower perceived stress, fewer hassles, less negative affect, less escape-avoidance and self-blame forms of coping and more positive affect.

 

There are a number of potential explanations for the association of mindfulness with improved psychological well-being. The study demonstrated that the association between mindfulness and lower depression was mediated by lower perceived stress and negative emotions. This makes sense as mindfulness has been shown to reduce both the physical and psychological responses to stress (see http://contemplative-studies.org/wp/index.php/2015/07/17/destress-with-mindfulness/) and it is also known to improve emotion regulation (see http://contemplative-studies.org/wp/index.php/2015/09/10/take-command-and-control-of-your-emotions/) and stress reduction and emotion regulation are helpful in relieving depression. In addition, since mindful individuals are more attuned to the present moment they may be better able to deal with whatever symptoms are present and not worry and catastrophize about the future.

The results are impressive. They are, however, only associations and it cannot be concluded that there is a causal link between mindfulness and the improved psychological well-being. A trial where mindfulness training is actively manipulated is needed to resolve this issue. Nevertheless, these results are suggestive that mindfulness training may be a way to help the vast numbers of people living with HIV infection adapt and cope with the physical and psychological issues associated with living with infection.

 

So, be mindful of HIV

 

“I’m not cured, but the HIV is asleep deep in my body.”- Magic Johnson

 

CMCS – Center for Mindfulness and Contemplative Studies

Genes, Mindfulness, Anxiety, and Depression

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“Of course, genes can’t pull the levers of our behavior directly. But they affect the wiring and workings of the brain, and the brain is the seat of our drives, temperaments and patterns of thought.” – Steven Pinker
There are large differences between people in both their physical and psychological characteristics, including their levels of mindfulness, anxiety, and depression. Some of the differences are the result of environmental influences. But, many people still differ considerably even though they have lived in similar environments and had similar experiences. In addition, many of these characteristics seem to be present right at birth. These facts support the notion that both the genes and the environment determine human characteristics.

 

Indeed, there is evidence that our level of mindfulness is in part inherited and transmitted with the genes but is also affected by the environment (See http://contemplative-studies.org/wp/index.php/2015/07/17/we-are-born-to-be-mindful/). It has also been shown that depression and our overall levels of anxiety are to a large extent inherited factors that also are affected by the environment. This taken together with the fact that mindfulness training is an effective treatment for depression (see http://contemplative-studies.org/wp/index.php/2015/08/19/this-is-the-brain-on-meditation-major-depressive-disorder/), and anxiety (see http://contemplative-studies.org/wp/index.php/2015/08/13/get-the-brain-to-reduce-anxiety-with-meditation/) raises the question of to what extent are the genes and environment underlying mindfulness also related to the genes and environment underlying depression and the genes and environment underlying anxiety.

 

In today’s Research News article “A Multivariate Twin Study of Trait Mindfulness, Depressive Symptoms, and Anxiety Sensitivity.”

https://www.facebook.com/ContemplativeStudiesCenter/photos/a.628903887133541.1073741828.627681673922429/1104498792907379/?type=3&theater

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4413043/

Waszczuk and colleagues investigated the genetic and environmental determination of mindfulness, anxiety, and depression using a twin model including identical and fraternal twins. They found that low mindfulness was associated with high levels of anxiety and depression. They also found that there were significant influences of both heredity and environment on all three characteristics. In addition, they found that common genetic influences explained most of the association between low mindfulness, depressive symptoms, and anxiety sensitivity. In other words, not only was depression and anxiety related to low mindfulness, and that each of the characteristics were influenced by heredity, but also the relationship between them was also influenced by heredity.

 

It is important to keep in mind that although heredity was found to be an important contributor to each of these characteristics and their relationships, there were also significant environmental contributors. Hence, although biology, influenced by the genes is an important determinant, the environment is also. This suggests that environmental interventions such as mindfulness training could alter these characteristics and their relationships.

 

These are interesting and important observations. They go a long way toward explaining why people are so different in their inherent levels of mindfulness, anxiety and depression. They also help us to understand why different people may respond differently to mindfulness training for anxiety and depression.

 

So, develop mindfulness to assist your genes in fighting anxiety and depression.

 

CMCS – Center for Mindfulness and Contemplative Studies

 

 

Medical School Mindfulness  

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“It has been suggested that inadequate self-care and ineffective coping styles are often established during medical training; they may persist after training and be self-destructive in the long-run. Therefore, introducing students to self-regulation skills along with other self-care approaches during medical school may improve their personal health and professional satisfaction not only during residency but also beyond.”  – William McCann

 

Medical School is challenging both intellectually and psychologically. Stress levels are high and burnout is common. It’s been estimated that 63% of medical students experience negative consequences from stress while symptoms of severe stress was present in 25% of students. The prevalence of stress is higher among females than among males. High stress levels lead to lower performance in medical school and higher levels of physical and mental health problems, especially anxiety and depression. Indeed 50% of medical students report burnout and 11% have considered suicide in the last year.

 

Obviously there is a need to either lower stress levels in medical education or find methods to assist medical students in dealing with the stress. One promising possibility is mindfulness training. It has been shown to reduce stress in students (See http://contemplative-studies.org/wp/index.php/2015/08/10/burnout-burnout-with-mindfulness/), to help with the negative consequences of stress (see http://contemplative-studies.org/wp/index.php/2015/07/17/destress-with-mindfulness/) and to reduce burnout in medical professionals (see http://contemplative-studies.org/wp/index.php/2015/08/10/burnout-burnout-with-mindfulness/). So, it would seem reasonable to suspect that mindfulness would be helpful in assisting medical students cope with the stress of their training.

 

In today’s Research News article “The relationships among self-care, dispositional mindfulness, and psychological distress in medical students”

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http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4481049/

Slonim and colleagues demonstrate that the higher the level of mindfulness in medical students the lower their distress levels including levels of depression, anxiety, and stress. They also found that higher levels of self-care, in particular spiritual growth, were associated with lower levels of distress.  Finally, they showed that high levels of mindfulness strengthened the relationship between self-care and lower distress levels.  That is, the higher the mindfulness level the greater the impact of self-care on lowering distress. So, mindfulness not only directly lowers depression, anxiety, and stress in medical students but also magnifies the positive effects of self-care on these symptoms of distress.

 

Mindfulness may assist medical students by increasing present moment awareness. This reduces patterns of automatic, mindless, and judgmental thinking which can mitigate the impact of the situation on the individual. So, the student can attribute how they’re feeling and acting to the situation rather than to some personal failing.

 

Mindfulness is known to increase emotion regulation allowing the student to more accurately interpret what they’re feeling and respond to it appropriately. This also reduces the impact of strong negative emotional responses to thoughts and emotions their levels of depression and anxiety. So, mindful students experience their emotional reactions, recognize their causes, and adjust to them in an adaptive way.

 

Finally, mindfulness has been demonstrated to directly reduce symptoms of stress and the individual’s responses to stress. This occurs both by altering the physical and hormonal responses to stress and by reducing the negative spiral of stress, where the fact of stress induces more stress. This dramatically improves the students’ ability to cope with the stressful demands of medical education, perform at a higher level and make burnout less likely.

 

So, be mindful and be better equipped to deal with stressful educational experiences.

 

CMCS – Center for Mindfulness and Contemplative Studies

Spirituality for Depression

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“Our Generation has had no Great war, no Great Depression. Our war is spiritual. Our depression is our lives.”- Chuck Palahniuk
Depression is widespread and debilitating. It is the most common mental illness affecting about 4% of the population worldwide. Unfortunately, the word depression is used in everyday language to mean both the clinical disorder and simple sadness. So, someone who for example is grieving about the death of a loved one is often labelled as depressed. That is simply not the appropriate use of the term.

 

Depression is not rooted in an event, a situation, or a characteristic. Sometimes the depressed individual will point to something as the cause, but the tipoff that it’s depression is that once that something goes away or is fixed, the depression still remains. Hence, the permanence of depression in the face of an improving environment suggests that it is more physically than environmentally based. But what to do for the legions of depressed people?

 

The most common solution is drugs. But they have troublesome side effects, are not always effective, and even when they are, can lose effectiveness over time. So, there is a need for other solutions. A number of contemplative practices have been shown to be effective in relieving depression. These include  mindfulness training (see http://contemplative-studies.org/wp/index.php/2015/08/15/spiraling-up-with-mindfulness/), mindfulness based cognitive therapy (see http://contemplative-studies.org/wp/index.php/2015/07/17/dealing-with-major-depression-when-drugs-fail/)  and yoga  (see http://contemplative-studies.org/wp/index.php/2015/09/03/keep-up-yoga-practice-for-anxiety-and-depression/).

 

It has long been reported that spirituality and religiosity are useful in treating depression. In today’s Research News article “Effects of religiosity and spirituality on the treatment Response in Patients with Depressive Disorders”

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Kim and colleagues studied depressed patients before and after undergoing 6-months of anti-depressant drug treatment. They found that the personal importance of religion and particularly spirituality were excellent predictors of successful treatment outcome. In other words, being high in spirituality was associated with better treatment response and lower depression at the end of treatment.

 

These results are interesting and potentially important, but how can spirituality improve anti-depressant drug treatment outcomes for depression? If we consider depression as biologically based, then the drug treatment may be addressing the core problem. But, years of depression produces a negative outlook on life that is so entrenched that it continues even after the core brain chemistry problem is addressed. The formerly depressed patient still maintains an expectation of a negative future. Spirituality, by way of giving a positive purpose to life may well be an antidote to the dour expectations of the formerly depressed patient. It provides hope for a better future.

 

Regardless of the mechanism it is clear that spirituality assists in recovering from depression.

 

“Once you have identified with some form of negativity, you do not want to let it go, and on a deeply unconscious level, you do not want positive change. It would threaten your identity as a depressed, angry or hard-done by person. You will then ignore, deny or sabotage the positive in your life. This is a common phenomenon. 
It is also insane.” ― Eckhart Tolle

 

CMCS – Center for Mindfulness and Contemplative Studies

 

Practice Yoga to Relieve Anxiety and Depression during Pregnancy

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“The effort to separate the physical experience of childbirth from the mental, emotional and spiritual aspects of this event has served to disempower and violate women.” ~Mary Rucklos Hampton

 

Depression is quiet common during pregnancy. More than 20 percent of pregnant women have an anxiety disorder, depressive symptoms, or both during pregnancy. The psychological health of pregnant women has consequences for fetal development, and consequently, child outcomes. Depression during pregnancy is associated with premature delivery and low birth weight. It is also associated with higher levels of stress hormone in the mother and in the newborns, which can make them more stress reactive, temperamentally difficult, and more challenging to care for and soothe. Long-term there’s some evidence that the children have more social and emotional problems, including aggression and conduct problems and possibly child IQ and language. But, while gestational diabetes is far less common than depression during pregnancy, women are routinely screened for this disorder, but not for depression, any psychiatric illness, nor even experiences of life stress.

 

It is clear that there is a need for methods to treat depression and anxiety during pregnancy. Since the fetus can be negatively impacted by drugs, it would be preferable to find a treatment that did not require drugs. Moderate exercise is also beneficial during pregnancy. Yoga has antidepressive and anti-stress properties and it is a moderate exercise http://contemplative-studies.org/wp/index.php/2015/08/11/improve-physical-health-with-yoga/, so, it would appear to be a good candidate to treat depression and anxiety during pregnancy.

 

In today’s Research News article “A randomized controlled trial of yoga for pregnant women with symptoms of depression and anxiety”

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Goodman and colleagues examine whether yoga practice during pregnancy is effective for depression and anxiety. They found that in comparison to treatment as usual, and 8-week program of yoga practice significantly reduced depression and negative emotions. Anxiety levels decreased in both the yoga and the treatment as usual groups.

 

It is not known if the efficacy of yoga for depression is due to its exercise value or to an intrinsic property specific to yoga. Both study groups had high levels of exercise before, during and after the treatment. As such, the additional exercise contributed by yoga would not make a significant difference in the fitness of the women. This speculation suggests that there may be other aspects of yoga practice that relieve depression. One obvious candidate is the social nature of the yoga classes, particularly since they were with other pregnant women. The camaraderie and sharing could be responsible for the antidepressive effects. It is also possible that the stress relieving properties of yoga are responsible for the psychological improvements.

 

Regardless, practice yoga during pregnancy to prevent or treat depression and anxiety.

 

“Yoga practice can make us more and more sensitive to subtler and subtler sensations in the body. Paying attention to and staying with finer and finer sensations within the body is one of the surest ways to steady the wandering mind.” ― Ravi Ravindra,

 

CMCS – Center for Mindfulness and Contemplative Studies

 

ACT for Depression

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ACT depressed_man

 

“That’s the thing about depression: A human being can survive almost anything, as long as she sees the end in sight. But depression is so insidious, and it compounds daily, that it’s impossible to ever see the end. The fog is like a cage without a key.” – Elizabeth Wurtzel

Depression is challenging and potentially deadly. It permeates the individual’s entire life and being. It is also widespread, affecting millions of people in the U.S. and worldwide. Recently mindfulness based therapies have been developed to treat depression and have been found to be quite effective (see links below). In fact, Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) was developed specifically to treat depression. But Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR), Mindfulness Meditation, and Loving Kindness Meditation have all been shown to be effective.

 

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) is a new form of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) that has been shown to be effective for depression. It helps the individual examine how their thoughts, feelings, and behavior interact to impact their psychological and physical well-being. It then works to change thinking to alter the interaction and produce greater life satisfaction. ACT employs mindfulness practices to increase awareness and develop an attitude of acceptance and compassion in the presence of painful thoughts and feelings. Additionally, ACT helps people strengthen aspects of cognition such as in committing to valued living.

 

As impressive as the effectiveness of many of the therapies for depression are, they require the supervision of a trained therapist working either with a single individual or in small groups. With the magnitude of the problem of depression, these therapies can only touch a small fraction of depression suffers. Recently the internet has been used to provide therapy to a wide audience. It allows for therapies to be made available to a much larger number of patients over a much larger geographical area.

 

In today’s Research News article “Web-Based Acceptance and Commitment Therapy for Depressive Symptoms With Minimal Support: A Randomized Controlled Trial.”

https://www.facebook.com/ContemplativeStudiesCenter/photos/a.628903887133541.1073741828.627681673922429/1089478137742778/?type=1&theater

Lappalainen and colleagues use the internet to deliver Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (iACT) for the treatment of depression and compared its effectiveness to a group of participants on a wait list for treatment. They found large significant and much greater improvements for the iACT group for depression overall and also marked improvements in experienced psychological and physiological symptoms, psychological flexibility, mindfulness, frequency of automatic thoughts, and thought suppression. In addition, the improvements continued and even increased over the year following treatment, demonstrating the long lasting effectiveness of iACT.

 

These are impressive results and indicate that ACT can be delivered effectively over the internet, producing long-lasting improvement in depression. The results suggest that iACT worked the way it was designed to, by producing more mindful, positive, and constructive thought processes. Thinking was more targeted to the present moment reducing rumination about past events, it was more under control and less automatic, and provided much greater flexibility in evaluative thinking. So the depressed individuals’ broke the cycle produced by the ideas and thoughts they have regarding their depression contributing further to their depression, allowing them to understand better the nature of their problems and the sources of their feelings.

 

So, ACT for depression.

 

“Depression isn’t about, ‘Woe is me, my life is this, that and the other’, it’s like having the worst flu all day that you just can’t kick.” – Robbie Williams

 

CMCS – Center for Mindfulness and Contemplative Studies

 

 

LINKS

Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) is effective for major depression even after drugs fail

http://contemplative-studies.org/wp/index.php/2015/07/17/dealing-with-major-depression-when-drugs-fail/

Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) is effective for depression

http://contemplative-studies.org/wp/index.php/2015/07/17/does-spirituality-account-for-mindfulness-anti-depressive-effects/

Loving Kindness Meditation is effective for depression

http://contemplative-studies.org/wp/index.php/2015/08/04/get-out-of-the-dumps-with-loving-kindness-meditation/

Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) is effective for depression

http://contemplative-studies.org/wp/index.php/2015/08/15/spiraling-up-with-mindfulness/

Mindfulness Meditation alters the brain to relieve depression

http://contemplative-studies.org/wp/index.php/2015/08/19/this-is-the-brain-on-meditation-major-depressive-disorder/