Before I say anything else, I have a little addition to yesterday’s post about exercise, stress, depression and anxiety and how exercise can be used to treat it or at least mitigate against it. Lo and behold today there is an article on the BBC about the benefits of exercise when considering mental health problems like depression. To have a read of this timely article, about new research done at Yale university, click here.
I think the idea of isolating the chemical(s) that can activate certain gene’s (in this case VGF – which is active in the hippocampus) is a good one, and may have many positive effects, but as ever there are possible downsides. I don’t want to be negative and I know there are people out there who dedicate their lives to waging a war on SSRI’s and other anti-depressants, but some points do need to be made.
Firstly, always remember that drug therapy for depression is a crutch not a cure. And there is no suggestion from the researchers involved in this study that this is intended as a cure: a course of drugs that leaves the patient recovered, as per penicillin. However effective it may be, the aim of healthcare professionals must be to get people to live free of any negative conditions like anxiety and depression through healthy lifestyle choices, a good diet, an examination of their cognitive processes (CBT) and analytical therapy where needed. It is very unlikely that a standardised pill can be 100% effective and side-effect free for everyone, that is why other approaches are necessary and often preferable. That said, and new weapon in the arsenal against depression and anxiety is excellent news, and will surely benefit people in real need if it goes on to be licensed and produced.
My second point is more along the lines of ethics. We seem to be living increasingly in a Now Now Now culture, where we expect everything to be at our fingertips. It is as if we have a divine right to whatever we want. We don’t. We have to earn what we want, and we can’t weight for it to come to us and sue someone if it doesn’t. While a pill that produces the same chemicals as exercise might be useful to get someone started, I argue that in the majority of cases the patient would do better (and would to all intents and purposes be side-effect free) if they produced those chemicals themselves by doing some exercise! There is something about "bottling" exercise that I don’t really like. Exercise is free, it should not be a blank cheque for multi-national pharmaceuticals!
As a practising psychotherapist in Indianapolis Indiana, I agree with your opinion on exercise and pills. An “exercise pill” maybe good for a few folks who are paralysed but for able bodied people–wouldn’t real exercise be better?? That is my bias and my clients often feel better when have physical exercise and like you alluded to, release their own chemicals into their system by real physical exercise. Thanks for your view!