Carl Remick wrote:
> [Somebody – I forget who – was roundly denounced on this list a few weeks
> ago for suggesting that exercise might be useful in treating depression.
> Based on the following AP story, I think that person deserves an apology.
> {
No apology whatsoever. In my "denunciation" I *included* information to the effect that for *some* exercise really did control depression completely, for most it helped some, for some it made depression worse, and for some (like me) it "cures" depression *during the exerercise period. That's the reason I was able to read Smith's *Wealth of Nations* at a time when I was more or less paralyzed with depression. I read for an hour a day six days a week while peddling an exercycle.
In addition -- *never* trust the AP to get a story on research in mental illness right. They *always* (not just usually or 999 out of a 1000 but ALWAYS) leave out all the qualifiers et cetera that the researchers put in.
I subscribe to an on-line journal in neurology that Les Schaffer called my attention to. When something along this line comes out in it (it includes "news items" as well as serious research) then I'll read it. I don't give a fuck what the AP has to say on the subject.
Repeat: No apology whatever for whatever I said about anyone who made any flat statement (without two or three pages of qualifications) on exercise and depression. My memory is vague -- but I think the person who made the statement did later qualify it: he was talking about "situational depression." But even for that experience varies. One can't keep walking for 24 hours a day. And I'm beginning to suspect on the basis of the experience of several friends, acquaintances, and relatives that those who are depressed *that* much by external circumstances to feel they have to label themselves as suffering from situational depression had better think about it a bit more. All too often situational depression translates at some point to Unipolar Affective Disorder, period -- Anyone who has had more than two episodes of "Situational Depression" and is still calling it that is probably in denial.
Carrol