The scale of both mental health problems and sleep problems is incredibly daunting, especially in children and young people.
I hope that post pandemic, we can do more to create the kinds of environments in which young people can thrive. Prevention will always preferable to treatment. Yet according to this NHS survey, for 1 in 5 young people, it may now be too late to prevent a mental health disorder from occurring, and many more are experiencing sleep problems.
We then need to prioritise access to the most effective support and treatment but in an NHS which is already overstretched. We need interventions which can be affordable and rolled out at scale, preferably with limited additional burden on healthcare services.
This review by Michael Noetel and colleagues (2024) gives some cause for optimism in the treatment of depression. On average, regular exercise of a range of different types was at least as effective as talking therapy, and actually more effective than pharmacotherapy with antidepressants.
Few of the 218 trials included actually compared like with like, so we need to be a bit cautious about the comparisons of effectiveness. Everyone is different, and exercise will not be appropriate in an acute crisis, for example, but still.. this is a resounding endorsement that exercise can be considered as a core treatment option for depression.
Noetel et al (2024) Effect of exercise for depression: systematic review and network meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials (BMJ)
doi.org/10.113...
Not in the video, but another review published this month reiterated what we already know.. exercise has reliable effects on improving sleep quality and reducing insomnia severity.
Tian et al (2024) The effects of exercise on insomnia disorders: An umbrella review and network meta-analysis
pubmed.ncbi.nl...
#sleep #sleepscience #thesleepscientist #health #wellbeing #mentalhealth #insomnia #depression #exercise #physical activity
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My name is Dr Sophie Bostock and I'm a scientist turned Sleep Evangelist. My goal is to help individuals, teams and organisations to improve their happiness and performance by understanding how to make the most of their sleep.
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11 сен 2024
