title: Lifestyle change recommendations in major depression: Do they work?
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Modifying some lifestyle factors can be useful in depression, at least as an adjuvant treatment. Combining different lifestyle interventions seems to be an adequate strategy to increase their antidepressant efficacy according with preliminary studies, but this issue has not been enough investigated.
  
  
  METHODS
  The present study is a randomized, double-blinded, multicentre, two arm-parallel clinical trials, with a 12 month follow-up. The sample consisted of 273 Primary Care patients. Four combined hygienic-dietary written recommendations were given to the patients about diet, exercise, light exposure and sleep hygiene.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Both active and control interventions were associated with improvement on BDI (Beck Depression Inventory) scores. However, there were not statistically significant differences (7.0 vs. 7.6; p=0.594).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  We were unable to monitor whether patients carry out recommendations. Intervention could be too difficult to accomplish for depressed patients without enough support and supervision.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Just giving written lifestyle recommendations are not enough for depressive patients to benefit from them, so perhaps lifestyle change recommendations work or do not work on Depression depending on how they are presented to patients and on monitoring systems of their implementation.
authors.affiliation: University of Balearic Islands, Institut Universitari d'Investigació en Ciències de la Salut (IUNICS), Palma, Spain.
authors.forename: M J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Serrano Ripoll
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology and Sociology, University of Zaragoza, Spain; Primary Care Prevention and Health Promotion Research Network, Spain.
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Oliván-Blázquez
authors.affiliation: Primary Care Prevention and Health Promotion Research Network, Spain; Psychiatric Service, Parc Sanitari Sant Joan de Déu, Barcelona, Spain.
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Vicens-Pons
authors.affiliation: University of Balearic Islands, Institut Universitari d'Investigació en Ciències de la Salut (IUNICS), Palma, Spain; Primary Care Prevention and Health Promotion Research Network, Spain.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Roca
authors.affiliation: University of Balearic Islands, Institut Universitari d'Investigació en Ciències de la Salut (IUNICS), Palma, Spain; Primary Care Prevention and Health Promotion Research Network, Spain.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Gili
authors.affiliation: Primary Care Research Unit of Mallorca, Health Services-IbSalut, Instituto de Investigación Sanitaria, Spain.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Leiva
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology and Sociology, University of Zaragoza, Spain; Primary Care Prevention and Health Promotion Research Network, Spain.
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: García-Campayo
authors.affiliation: "Mente Aberta" - Brazilian Center for Mindfulness and Health Promotion, Federal University of Sao Paulo, UNIFESP, Brazil.
authors.forename: M P
authors.initials: MP
authors.lastname: Demarzo
authors.affiliation: University of Balearic Islands, Institut Universitari d'Investigació en Ciències de la Salut (IUNICS), Palma, Spain; Primary Care Prevention and Health Promotion Research Network, Spain. Electronic address: mauro.garcia@uib.es.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: García-Toro
mesh_terms: D003131:Combined Modality Therapy; D003865:Major Depressive Disorder / Q000523:psychology / Q000628:therapy*; D004032:Diet; D004311:Double-Blind Method; D015444:Exercise; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D015438:Health Behavior; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D012890:Sleep; D013472:Sunlight
keywords: Depression; Diet; Exercise; Lifestyle recommendations; Sleep patterns; Sunlight exposure