Can WHOLE BODY CRYOTHERAPY and HYPERBARIC OXYGEN TREATMENT be new holistic treatments for DEPRESSION

LondonCryo provides services of both Whole Body Cryotherapy (WBC) and Hyperbaric oxygen treatment (HBOT). Both methods have been found to be effective in depression treatment.  WBC can augment the effect of antidepressants and HBOT efficiently treats endogenous depression as effectively as symptoms of somatic depression.

Now lets delve further into this. You are suffering from depression and diligently following your medicine routine. You have adopted lifestyle management approaches and made use of coping skills. It seems like you are doing everything right but still, your depression is nowhere to get better. Even somedays, the symptoms get worse. If you have taken help professional and take medications, or a combination of them but still your depression is not decreasing, it might make you frustrated and searching for more answers. However, you will feel good to know that beyond these traditional methods, there are other options for the treatment of depression. But first, we will see why medication or a combination therapy might not be working for depression.

WHY THE MEDICATION OR PROFESSIONAL HELP MIGHT NOT BE WORKING FOR YOU?

The treatment of depression does not occur in a linear manner, the degree of response differs and even relapse can happen. The medication and psychotherapy have been able to reduce the symptoms in about forty to sixty percent of the individuals but thirty percent of the individuals experienced minimal response or does not have any reduction in the symptoms. The symptoms might be refractory and severe. This condition is called “treatment-resistant depression”.

WHAT IS TREATMENT-RESISTANT DEPRESSION?

Also known as treatment-refractory depression, it is a condition of depression that does not respond well to medication. It is an entrenched and severe depression characterized by frequent episodes of relapses accompanied by an increase in the severity of symptoms. This can result in chronic impairment of functioning and increases the chances of comorbidities in the suffering individuals. Moreover, the risk of suicidal attempts and self-harming behavior also increases.

HOW YOU CAN IDENTIFY YOU HAVE TREATMENT-RESISTANT DEPRESSION?

If your symptoms get severe, you have thoughts of harming yourself, experiencing extreme mood swings, and wanting to be alone. You have not observed any response or minimal response to several medications and despite taking regular medicines, your symptoms continue to worsen. Moreover, you are experiencing poor acceptance of antidepressants. These all are the indicators that you might have treatment-resistant depression.

WHAT SHOULD BE DONE IN CASE OF TREATMENT-RESISTANT DEPRESSION?

In the case where treatment with medication is ineffective for depression or there is treatment-resistant depression, it is indicated to use treatment augmentation using psychological and biological methods of therapy. For treatment-resistant depression where various treatments had been not able to show complete effectiveness, the mainstream strategy is to use multi-module treatment that combines psychotherapy, medicines, and biological non-pharmacological forms of management. There is a possibility that depressive symptoms can improve when methods that use stimulation of the body through physical stimuli are used to treat depression based on somatic disease. Two such methods are “Whole Body Cryotherapy (WBC)” and “Hyperbaric oxygen treatment (HOBT)”.

THE BENEFITS OF WBC FOR DEPRESSION

A scientific systematic review study was conducted to understand whether there are any beneficial effects of WBC and HOBT for depression. The research study included many researches carried out on outcomes of WBC and HOBT for depression and the results were quite interesting.

As we have discussed several times, WBC is a method of treatment that uses a special cryo-chamber having extremely low temperatures in which the patient is kept for a period of between one to four minutes. The systematic review studied the WBC use as a supplementary treatment to medications in patients having depression. It was interesting to note in the research that patients’ symptoms started to significantly improve after just five to six WBC sessions. Another research in which WBC was administered for 10 sessions, the intensity of the symptoms decreased by thirty-five percent while in a study consisting of 15 sessions, the decrease was recorded to be 69%.

Now the question is what might be causing the reduction in the depressive symptoms when treated with WBC. The systematic review noted in one of the studies that when biochemical parameters were analyzed after the body was exposed to WBC, there was a significant decrease in the neurotrophic factor of the brain. A “brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF)” is a protein in humans having an important role in memory and learning and also acts as a modulator of neurotransmitters, the chemicals responsible for the transfer of messages in the body.   

THE BENEFITS OF HBOT FOR DEPRESSION

Another non-pharmacological method for treating depression discussed in the same systematic review study was HBOT. In this treatment method, a hundred percent pure oxygen is used at a pressure that is more than atmospheric pressure. The systematic review discusses a study conducted in 2017 explaining that HOBT not only reduces the inflammation of the nervous tissue but it may also block the reuptake of serotonin. An important factor in depression treatment.  It is also very well established that HBOT effectively and safely treats depression after stroke. HBOT can be used as therapy on its own or as an add-on to the already going on treatment. In both cases, the severity of depression decreases. HBOT is also shown to have fewer side effects in comparison to conventional treatment with anti-depressants. 

The systematic review discussed a case study highlighting the effectiveness of treatment with HBOT. A 45-year-old patient having depression and also suffering from Parkinson’s disease was submitted to a thirty-day session of HBOT. The patient was assessed for his depression prior to and after treatment with HBOT. After the thirty-day session with HBOT, the intensity of the symptoms measured on HRDS was noted to decrease by 20 points. It was also interesting to note that the improvement in the mood of the patient was also maintained.

LondonCryo provides services of both Whole Body Cryotherapy (WBC) and Hyperbaric oxygen treatment (HOBT). Both methods have been found to be effective in depression treatment.  WBC can augment the effect of antidepressants and HBOT efficiently treats endogenous depression as effectively as symptoms of somatic depression. If you have any questions related to these treatments and how they can help you with your depression, you can always reach out to us and see what we can do to help you and manage your symptoms.

If you have any questions related to these treatments and how they can help you with your depression, you can always reach out to us and see what we can do to help you and manage your symptoms.

Sources

Al-Harbi KS. Treatment-resistant depression: therapeutic trends, challenges, and future directions. Patient Prefer Adherence. 2012;6:369-88. doi: 10.2147/PPA.S29716. Epub 2012 May 1. PMID: 22654508; PMCID: PMC3363299.

Chen P. Optimized Treatment Strategy for Depressive Disorder. Adv Exp Med Biol. 2019;1180:201-217. doi: 10.1007/978-981-32-9271-0_11. PMID: 31784965.

Institute for Quality and Efficiency in Health Care. (2015). Depression: How effective are antidepressants.

Krzystanek, M., Romańczyk, M., Surma, S., & Koźmin-Burzyńska, A. (2021). Whole Body Cryotherapy and Hyperbaric Oxygen Treatment: New Biological Treatment of Depression? A Systematic Review. Pharmaceuticals (Basel, Switzerland), 14(6), 595. https://doi.org/10.3390/ph14060595