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Background: Despite various studies, supportive evidence for the efficacy of exercise in treatment of mental illness is still weak. Objective: The aim of this study was to compare two forms of exercise, namely running therapy (RT) and physiotraining therapy (PT), on stationary devices. Methods: Patients in a day treatment programme for treatment of affective disorders were randomly allocated to one of the exercise groups or to a control group. Depression scores, self-efficacy, physical conditions and appreciations of the training programme were measured. Results: After 6 weeks, no significant differences were found between both the training groups and the control group; however, after 12 weeks, the physiotraining group showed significant improvement on scores for blind-rated Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression and on scores for self-rated Beck Depression Inventory 21-item version. Conclusions: Our results suggest that PT has advantages over RT. We speculate that an improved feeling of self-efficacy may be a mediating factor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Acute tryptophan depletion transiently induces symptoms in those with remitted depression. The behavioural specificity is uncertain, however. Recently, symptom provocation studies have become controversial, particularly in the USA.Aims: To assess the specificity of acute tryptophan depletion. To investigate systematically the subjective experiences of those taking part in a symptom provocation study.Method: Twenty individuals with remitted depression underwent acute tryptophan depletion in a double-blind, crossover trial. Psychiatric symptoms and self-schemata relevant to depression were assessed. The quality of the informed consent procedure and subjective experiences were also evaluated.Results: Acute tryptophan depletion induced a specific depressive response. The effects were more pronounced in females than in males. Participants were quite satisfied with the informed consent procedure. They had understood that this was a fundamental research project and personal benefits were not expected. However, some participants still found it a positive experience.Conclusions: Acute tryptophan depletion is a suitable model of vulnerability to depression, from both a scientific and an ethical perspective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Haffmans PMJ, Oolders HJ, Hoencamp E, Schreiner A. Sleep quality in schizophrenia and the effects of atypical antipsychotic medication. Sleep disorders are widespread among patients with schizophrenia and contribute to adverse clinical outcomes. Antipsychotic drugs exert varying effects on sleep, and the effects of atypical agents may differ from those of conventional neuroleptics. To review the literature on the effects of atypical medication on subjective and objective sleep quality in patients with schizophrenia. A non-systematic literature review of Medline was performed in August 2003 searching the period from January 1985 to August 2003 for studies of the effects of atypical antipsychotics on sleep. We found published studies of clozapine, olanzapine, and risperidone, but none on quetiapine or ziprasidone. Studies with clozapine showed that it increased total sleep time, sleep efficiency, stage-2 non-rapid eye movement sleep and rapid eye movement (REM) sleep density, and decreased stage-4 sleep, slow wave sleep (SWS) and stage-1 sleep. Single-dose studies with olanzapine have shown that it increases SWS, sleep continuity, total sleeping time, subjective sleep quality, and delta sleep. Long-term studies with risperidone have shown improvements in total sleep, sleep efficiency, sleep continuity, SWS, and stage-2 sleep, and reductions in sleep latency, number of awakenings, and proportion of time awake. These benefits were paralleled by improvements in subjective sleep assessment and psychopathology, and psychosocial functioning. The evidence presented in this review suggests that atypical antipsychotics exert favorable effects on sleep profile compared with conventional agents, including improvement of subjective sleep quality and modification of specific sleep stages known to be associated with better clinical outcome. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]