"Happy feet": evaluating the benefits of a 100-day 10,000 step challenge on mental health and wellbeing.

BACKGROUND: An increased awareness of the health benefits of walking has emerged with the development and refinement of accelerometer equipment. Evidence is beginning to highlight the value of promoting walking, particularly focusing on the Japanese mark of obtaining 10,000 steps per day. Workplace based step challenges have become popular to engage large cohorts in increasing their daily physical activity in a sustainable and enjoyable way. Findings are now highlighting the positive health effects of these medium-term programs (typically conducted over a few months) in terms of cardiovascular health, reducing diabetes risk and improving lifestyle factors such as weight and blood pressure. As yet, research has not focused on whether similar improvements in psychological health and wellbeing are present. METHODS: This study investigated the impact of a 100-day, 10,000 step program on signs of depression, anxiety and stress as well as general wellbeing using standardised psychological scales. RESULTS: The results indicated a small but consistent effect on all of these measures of mental health over the term of the program. This effect appeared irrespective of whether a person reached the 10,000 step mark. CONCLUSIONS: These results highlight improved mental health and wellbeing in people undertaking this 100-day 10,000 step program and indicates the efficacy and potential of these programs for a modest, yet important improvement in mental health. Notably, targets reached may be less important than participation itself.

A single-blind, randomised controlled trial on the effects of lithium and quetiapine monotherapy on the trajectory of cognitive functioning in first episode mania: A 12-month follow-up study.

BACKGROUND: Cognitive deficits have been reported during the early stages of bipolar disorder; however, the role of medication on such deficits remains unclear. The aim of this study was to compare the effects of lithium and quetiapine monotherapy on cognitive performance in people following first episode mania. METHODS: The design was a single-blind, randomised controlled trial on a cohort of 61 participants following first episode mania. Participants received either lithium or quetiapine monotherapy as maintenance treatment over a 12-month follow-up period. The groups were compared on performance outcomes using an extensive cognitive assessment battery conducted at baseline, month 3 and month 12 follow-up time-points. RESULTS: There was a significant interaction between group and time in phonemic fluency at the 3-month and 12-month endpoints, reflecting greater improvements in performance in lithium-treated participants relative to quetiapine-treated participants. After controlling for multiple comparisons, there were no other significant interactions between group and time for other measures of cognition. CONCLUSION: Although the effects of lithium and quetiapine treatment were similar for most cognitive domains, the findings imply that early initiation of lithium treatment may benefit the trajectory of cognition, specifically verbal fluency in young people with bipolar disorder. Given that cognition is a major symptomatic domain of bipolar disorder and has substantive effects on general functioning, the ability to influence the trajectory of cognitive change is of considerable clinical importance.

Differences between subjective and objective assessments of the utility of Electroconvulsive therapy in patients with bipolar and unipolar depression.

While ECT is widely used for the management of severe and refractory depression, its utility in bipolar disorder is not extensively studied. The aim of this study was to examine the reported effectiveness of ECT in patients with unipolar and bipolar depression as reported by psychiatrists, nurses and patients (i.e. using objective and subjective measures). The records of 787 consecutive inpatient admissions to the Geelong Clinic, a private psychiatric centre based outside Melbourne, Victoria were reviewed in this file audit. Routine assessment measures were completed at admission and discharge, and included patient rated measures (Medical Outcomes Short Form SF-14 and Depression Anxiety and Stress Scale, DASS), nurse rated measures, (The Health of the Nation Outcome Scale, HoNOS) and a psychiatrist rated measure, the Clinical Global impression scale (CGI). In contrast to individuals with unipolar depression, where improvement was seen on all measures, in bipolar disorder, while improvement in clinician rated measures was seen (CGI, HoNOS), there was an absence of improvement in subjective measures of mood (DASS, SF14). This study suggests that in bipolar disorder, there is a poorer subjective response to ECT than in unipolar disorder.

An investigation of the effect of tacrine and physostigmine on spatial working memory deficits in the olfactory bulbectomised rat.

The olfactory bulbectomised (OB) rat is being increasingly used as a model of impaired learning and mnemonic functioning. In this study the model has been utilised to determine the effect of the acetylcholinesterase inhibiting compounds tacrine and physostigmine on spatial working memory deficits associated with the OB rat. One-hundred and twenty male rats were randomly allocated to OB or sham operated groups and received chronic i.p. treatment with either saline, physostigmine (0.1 mg/kg) or tacrine (0.1 and 0.3 mg/kg). Two weeks after beginning treatment animals were tested on the Morris water maze and open field test. The results indicated that the OB surgery was associated with spatial working memory disturbances that were effectively attenuated with both doses of tacrine, but not physostigmine. Increased hyperactivity and defecation was observed in OB animals in the Open-field test, however, these changes were not ameliorated by either drug treatment. The ability for tacrine but not physostigmine to attenuate OB cognitive deficits may be associated with the different half-life of these compounds. This study provides further support for the use of the OB rat as a drug discovery model for the investigation of novel therapeutic compounds that target the cholinergic system.