Healing Of Depression by Physical Activity - Research Paper Example

Depression can be treated through medication and other treatment options. Antidepressant medications include selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), serotonin and norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors (SNRIs), norepinephrine and dopamine reuptake inhibitors (NDRIs), atypical antidepressants, tricyclic antidepressants, monoamine oxidase inhibitors (MAOIs), and other medications. SSRIs are the most prevalently used for treating depression because of their efficiency and tolerability (Walker, 2013, p. 313). Besides medication, psychotherapy is another treatment option for depression.

Psychotherapy is also called talk therapy because it involves talking about depression with a mental health care practitioner. Several randomized controlled trials (RCTs) showed that psychotherapy has moderate to large effects on treating depressive orders (Barth et al., 2013; Cuipers et al., 2013). The relapse rate after two years is somewhat high, although lower when compared to non-psychotherapeutic treatments (Steinert et al., 2014). Another common treatment for treating mild depression is cognitive behavior therapy (CBT).

In CBT, the patient meets with a psychotherapist for counseling sessions. The therapist will guide the patient in positive thinking patterns (Carter et al., 2013). Patients with severe cases of depression are often given medicine as part of their treatment, nonetheless. A different treatment for severe cases of depression is giving them electromagnetic therapy (ETC). This treatment is used when other treatments have failed. ETC involves passing electrical currents to the brain. Around a third of patients do not positively respond to current therapies and medicine for depression and relapse to depression can be high, a treatment issue that emphasizes the need for alternative and complementary options (Danielsson et al., 2014, p. 168; Keitner & Mansfield, 2012; Singh & Fiatarone Singh, 2000).

An increase in physical activity, which includes exercise, has received considerable attention from researchers and physicians because several systematic reviews indicated that it can have small to large impacts on treating depression (Stanton & Reaburn, 2014).