Literature search

Literature search

What is the topic you have chosen to examine?

I have chosen to examine the impact of exercise on mental health. It is to find out whether physical exercise can be used as a method of improving mental health. In this case, the mental health issue being addressed are depression severity, coping efficacy, episodic memory, and cortisol awakening process

Why are you interested in this topic?

I am interested in this topic because of the escalating cases of depression. Most people who suffer from depression prefer anti-depressant pills to professional help. The anti-depressant pills however only suppress depression rather than eliminating it. I want to find out whether exercise can be an effective treatment for depression.

Why is this an important topic to examine?

It is essential to examine this topic because of depression in an escalating public health concern and mostly has pharmacological treatment. Exercise is an inexpensive therapy that brings several health benefits, improves general well-being, and may fill the time lag of 3-4 weeks that antidepressants require before showing therapeutic effects (Jorge, Silverio, Serafim, Jose, Daniella &Joaquim ,2011). Therefore, apart from eliminating dependency on anti-depressant pill, it is a faster way of treatment thus the importance of the research. In line with Loise, Harry, Elizabeth, Jo, Bernadette and Nerissa (2008), the examination of the mechanism of change is an important step to identify how and why an intervention works — the article further states that in depression, several synergistically interacting changes occurring during exercise may explain the benefit of this treatment.  This implies that exercise might be a treatment for depression. Furthermore, according to Dimeo, Bauer, Varahram Proest and Halter (2001), previous exercise programmes were carried out at the same time as pharmacological treatment. Thus, the relative effects of the two interventions on the observed outcomes cannot be differentiated. This presents the need to find out whether exercise can be a form of treatment for depression without the aid of pharmacological treatment.

What databases did you search and why did you use them?

I used searched two databases namely Google Scholar and ResearchGate. I searched the two databases because they have a broad genre of scholarly and peer-reviewed articles and journals. Due to the wide variety available, one is provided with an array of scholarly articles to choose from. Also, it is easier to use Google Scholar if one keys the relevant search terms. In ResearchGate, one gets an option of researching from a specific angle; for example, as a scientist, student, journalist or researcher. Once one chooses a specific research angle, one gets reading material that is relevant to the angle taken.

Which search terms were used and why did you use them?

For this literature search, I selected three key terms which I later used in the Boolean search. The crucial first term was mental health. This was important because depression is a type of mental illness and it is associated with the brain. Furthermore, the search had to be specified for mental health to bring mental illness related articles. The crucial second term I used was depression. There are many types of mental disorders including bipolar disorder, dementia, post-traumatic stress disorder and many more. The use of depression as a keyword in the search narrows down the search to depression-related articles. When the articles are narrowed-down, getting the relevant articles becomes easier. The third keyword used was exercise. As such This is because there are many treatment methods for depression which include medical forms of treatment. Since the purpose of this research is to identify exercise as an effective way of treating depression, I need articles about exercise. When using Boolean search, I combined the words and came up with two search phrases. They were as follows:  Effects of exercise on depression and the second one was Exercise and mental health. The two search phrases brought the relevant articles.

Did you use wildcard characters in your search?

I did not use wildcard characters in my search. As such, this is because the critical search terms selected maximized the search results. Also, there was no ambiguity in the key terms that need an asterisk or a question mark to bring specified results. As such, they were not needed.

What inclusion and exclusion criteria did you use in your search? Why did you use each of them?

In the inclusion-exclusion criteria, I used participants and the exposure of interest. For the participants, I included all articles that had adult participants only. Adults are more prone to mental illness compared to children. In my trust, this implies that they would give effective results. Also, when it comes to exercising, adults are more cooperative compared to children. Therefore, included all articles that used adult participants while excluding those that had children as participants. In the exposure to interest, I included all the articles that required participants who were not under any medication related to depression. This is because research that analyses un-medicated participants will show the effect of exercise on mental health without having the medication being used as a limiting factor. As such, un-medicated patients give the most effective results. Therefore, I excluded all articles which used participants who were under depression medication. These two criteria helped narrow down the broad search.

How many articles did you find initially?

I found three articles that related to my area of interest and were all from Google Scholar. Although they were relevant, I chose only one.

If you needed to broaden or narrow your literature search, please explain how and why you did this in detail.

If I needed to broaden your research, I would adjust the inclusion-exclusion criteria. For instance, when considering the participants, I would include children participants. This would have enabled me to find out how children respond to exercise as a way of treating depression. In the exposure of interest, I would remove the barrier on medicated participants. Using medicated and un-medicated participants will broaden my research. This is because I would be able to compare how the two groups respond to exercise as a form of treatment. It would help me find out whether medicated participants respond differently to unmedicated ones.

Describe the process used to eliminate articles from your search to arrive at your chosen article, identifying the number discarded and the rationale for discarding them at each stage.

I found three articles from the search. They are: Benefits from aerobic exercise in patients with major depression: a pilot study, Moderate exercise improves depression parameters in treatment-resistant patients with the major depressive disorder and an examination of potential mechanisms for exercise as a treatment for depression: A pilot study

I eliminated the first one because only patients with major depression were considered. The type of participants used was limiting because I wanted to find out the impact of exercise even in participants with mild depression. Furthermore, this study intended to find out whether exercise improved on the moods of the depressed participant. I found this to be narrow research since people suffering from depression need more than mood improvement. Besides, the article was limited since the only exercise used was aerobics. As such, I felt that this article did not cover all relevant areas.

I eliminate the second article because the participants for the study had to be under medication for more than nine months without remission. I found this to be limiting because it never gave unmedicated participants to try exercise as a form of treatment.

I chose the third article because it gave more information compared to the others. It involved both medicated and unmedicated participants. The study also used two modes of exercise which are aerobics and stretching.

Identify on what basis you selected the final article for analysis.

I selected the article because the participants used and the exercises involved. This article used volunteer participants aged 18-55 who were both medicated and unmedicated. Also, aerobics and stretching were the exercises used with none serving as a control measure. As such, I found that the article informative enough.

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References

Dimeo, F., Bauer, M., Varahram, I., Proest, G. and Halter, U., 2001. Benefits from aerobic exercise in patients with major depression: a pilot study. British journal of sports medicine, 35(2), pp.114-117.

Foley, L.S., Prapavessis, H., Osuch, E.A., De Pace, J.A., Murphy, B.A. and Podolinsky, N.J., 2008. An examination of potential mechanisms for exercise as a treatment for depression: a pilot study. Mental Health and Physical Activity, 1(2), pp.69-73.

Mota-Pereira, J., Silverio, J., Carvalho, S., Ribeiro, J.C., Fonte, D. and Ramos, J., 2011. Moderate exercise improves depression parameters in treatment-resistant patients with major depressive disorder. Journal of psychiatric research, 45(8), pp.1005-1011.