Treatment of Depression using Exercise and Antidepressants

Treatment of Depression using Exercise and Antidepressants

The World Health Organization (2021) reveals that over 280 million individuals in the world suffer from depression. Individuals with depression experience reduced pleasure and interest in daily activities, gain or lose weight, have excessive sleep or insomnia and have feelings of worthlessness and suicide. Antidepressants are the mainstream treatment.

Research shows that antidepressants are associated with low adherence rates since some individuals associate their use with adverse effects like weight gain and addiction (Marasine & Sankhi, 2021). Therefore, other measures are considered as complements or substitutes to antidepressants. Accordingly, I hypothesize that combining exercise with antidepressants can greatly minimize depressive symptoms as opposed to using antidepressants alone. The independent variables, in this case, are exercise and antidepressants, whereas the dependent variable is depressive symptoms.

The sampling method that will be used in this research is non-probability sampling. Non-probability sampling involves choosing the samples based on the researcher’s subjective judgment instead of random selection, which is considered more representative of the population (Stangor, 2010). In particular, convenience sampling will be the most ideal for testing the proposed hypothesis. Convenience sampling involves selecting from an already available sample. The sample will be obtained from a group of college students who are suffering from depression. The data will be obtained from the college’s healthcare data. Subsequently, consent will be obtained from the relevant authorities together with the participants to minimize any ethical problems that might occur in the process. These students will be categorized into two categories: those who only use antidepressants and those who use antidepressants and engage in regular physical activity. By making use of these two groups, it will be possible to test my hypothesis.

References

Marasine, N. R., & Sankhi, S. (2021). Factors Associated with Antidepressant Medication Non-adherence. Turkish Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences, 18(2), 242.

Stangor, C. (Research Methods for the Behavioral Sciences. (4^th ed.). Wadsworth Cengage Learning.

World Health Organization. (2021). Depression. Retrieved from https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/depression

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Discussion: Developing a Research Hypothesis and Selecting a Sampling Method and Technique
Developing a research hypothesis (also referred to as the test hypothesis or alternative hypothesis), and selecting participants to test the hypothesis are critical components for beginning a study. This hypothesis is your prediction of what will actually happen in your study. This hypothesis should also predict the proposed relations among your selected independent variable(s), which you manipulate, and how the manipulation will affect the dependent variable(s), which measure the outcome.

If your hypothesis states, “participating in psychotherapy will reduce anxiety,” psychotherapy is the independent variable. That is, your experiment will include individuals who go through psychotherapy and others who do not. Afterwards, you will compare your participants on an anxiety scale to see if the psychotherapy actually reduced anxiety. In this case, the measure of anxiety after the treatment is the dependent variable.
Before testing a hypothesis, you will need to consider the population of interest from which you will recruit a sample of individuals to participate in your study. There are two methods of sampling to consider. One method is probability sampling and the various corresponding techniques (e.g., systematic random sampling, stratified sampling), wherein every member in a population has a chance to be included in the sample. When everyone in a population is not accessible, you will need to rely on the second method, which is nonprobability sampling, and the various corresponding techniques (e.g., snowball sampling, convenience sampling).
For this Discussion, you will locate and select a topic of your choice and develop your own research hypothesis based on your understanding of the topic. You will also apply your understanding of sampling methods and techniques that can be utilized to test your hypothesis as well as the hypotheses generated by your colleagues.
To prepare:
• Read Chapter 2 and Chapter 8 of your course text.
• Read the assigned pages from Chapter 6 of your course text.
• Go to the “Psychology Topics” web page on the APA website. Choose one topic that interests you, and develop your own research hypothesis based on that topic.
• Think about what you might select as the independent and dependent variables in a study you could design to test your hypothesis.
• Consider how you would select your sample and recruit participants to test your hypothesis.
With these thoughts in mind:
By Day 3
• Provide a brief description of your topic (fewer than 50 words). Note: Include your topic in the “Subject” field of your post.
• Clearly state the research hypothesis you generated for the topic you selected, and identify the independent variable and dependent variable in your hypothesis.
• Explain the sampling method (probability or nonprobability) and the particular technique (e.g., simple random sampling, systematic random sampling, stratified sampling, cluster sampling, snowball sampling, convenience sampling) that would be ideal for testing your proposed hypothesis.
• Explain how the proposed sampling technique would be carried out as it applies to your proposed study idea (i.e., how you would use this method to recruit participants).

Resources and references:

Here is the website you will visit: http://apa.org/topics/index.aspx

Scroll down to see all of the topics you can choose from. Click on the hyperlinks for brief descriptions of the topics. A heads up to be sure to read the specific directions this week for what you need to include in your response to a colleague’s assignment post.
I am working on getting the Week 1 grading done as quickly as possible so that you can incorporate the feedback I provide on assignments into your future assignments. To see the rubric feedback, click on “View Rubric.” If after receiving feedback you are still unclear about the scoring, please first review again the grading rubrics, and the notes I have made, and then e-mail me if you have specific questions.

Stangor, C. (2015). Research methods for the behavioral sciences (5th ed.). Stamford, CT: Cengage Learning.
• Chapter 2, “Developing the Research Hypothesis”
• Chapter 6, “Surveys and Sampling” (pp. 108–116)
• Chapter 8, “Hypothesis Testing and Inferential Statistics”