Dance movement therapy improves emotional responses and modulates neurohormones in adolescents with mild depression.

This study assessed the profiles of psychological health and changes in neurohormones of adolescents with mild depression after 12 weeks of dance movement therapy (DMT). Forty middle school seniors (mean age: 16 years old) volunteered to participate in this study and were randomly assigned into either a dance movement group (n = 20) or a control group (n = 20). All subscale scores of psychological distress and global scores decreased significantly after the 12 weeks in the DMT group. Plasma serotonin concentration increased and dopamine concentration decreased in the DMT group. These results suggest that DMT may stabilize the sympathetic nervous system. In conclusion, DMT may be effective in beneficially modulating concentrations of serotonin and dopamine, and in improving psychological distress in adolescents with mild depression.

Role of dietary fat type in the development of adiposity from dietary obesity-susceptible Sprague-Dawley rats.

The present study was designed to define how dietary fat type regulates body adiposity in dietary obesity-susceptible (DOS) Sprague-Dawley (SD) rats. Eighty-three SD rats received a purified diet containing 50 g maize oil (MO)/kg for 3 weeks and then thirty-nine of the rats, designated as the DOS rats, were allotted to diets containing 160 g MO (DOS-MO), beef tallow (DOS-BT) or fish oil (DOS-FO)/kg for 9 weeks. As a result of the experiment, the DOS-FO rats had significantly (P<0.05) reduced weight gain and abdominal and epididymal fat-pad mass than the DOS-MO and DOS-BT rats. Serum leptin level was also significantly (P<0.05) lower in the DOS-FO rats; however, hypothalamic leptin receptor (a and b) mRNA and neuropeptide Y expressions were not altered by dietary fat sources. A lower acetyl-CoA carboxylase mRNA expression in the liver was observed in the DOS-FO group, whereas hepatic peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-gamma mRNA and protein expressions were markedly elevated in the DOS-FO group compared with those in the other groups. We did not observe differences in acetyl-CoA carboxylase and peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-gamma expressions in epididymal fat of the DOS rats consuming MO, BT or FO. It is concluded from our present observations that dietary fat type, especially that rich in FO, plays a potential role in down-regulation of adiposity by altering hepatic lipogenic genes, rather than feeding behaviour, in the DOS-SD rats.