How reading crime novels could help ease depression
MANY a bookworm will tell you that curling up with a paperback is a salve for the mind. And it seems scientists agree — with research suggesting reading can ease depression.
While it is not a cure, experts believe it is effective and could reduce the reliance on antidepressants in some cases.
GPs in Ireland dish out millions of antidepressant prescriptions each year for patients suffering with depression, anxiety and panic attacks.
The annual total has spiralled in the past decade, fuelling fears that doctors are prescribing the pills too freely to patients with depression who might get better with alternative treatments, such as talking therapies.
However, there can be long waiting lists. And as unlikely as it sounds, reading could be a useful remedy. Two recent studies have found patients prescribed reading for mild to moderate depression — a treatment known as bibliotherapy — saw improvements in mood and psychological well-being.
In September 2017, researchers at the University of Turin in Italy published an analysis of ten studies of bibliotherapy. Their findings, published in the journal Clinical Psychology Review, showed that participants in at least six studies saw significant improvements in their depression scores for up to three years after taking part in a course of reading therapy.
‘Bibliotherapy appears to be effective in the reduction of depressive symptoms in the long term, and could be an affordable treatment that reduces the need for medications,’ the researchers concluded.
Another study by a team at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands, published in the journal PLOS One last year, looked at whether non-drug therapies such as reading could combat depression in the elderly.
Researchers found 18 studies, dating back decades, suggesting reading could boost the mood of pensioners. This thinking moved into mainstream psychiatric medicine in 2009 when the first bibliotherapy scheme in Ireland was piloted, led by HSE senior psychologist Elaine Martin in collaboration with Dublin City Public Libraries.
The scheme provided health professionals with a list of leading self-help books that they brought to the attention of patients and clients who were likely to benefit.
The self-help approach proved popular — more than 2,500 books were issued in the first year from six city libraries. Similar initiatives have since started across the country, including Your Good Self in Cork and Meath Healthy Reading Scheme.
IN Britain the idea has gone nationwide with the ‘Books on Prescription’ scheme which includes classic works of fiction alongside several selfhelp books — such as Overcoming Depression by Paul Gilbert, a professor of psychology, and Mind Over Mood: Change How You Feel By Changing The Way You Think.
The mood-boosting books, plays and poetry on the list have been recommended by other depressed patients, including Poldark by Winston Graham — the novel that spawned the TV hit.
‘Many people with depression feel isolated, but reading about other people’s experiences — even if they are fictional — can give them hope,’ says Dr Liz Brewster, a lecturer in medical education who has studied the effects of bibliotherapy in mental illness.
Dr Brewster’s research last year suggested that even easy-to-read crime dramas can bolster the wellbeing of patients with depression, as she reported in the journal Medical Humanities.
Dr Brewster says: ‘My research shows some patients like the safety of a crime drama when they know the crime will be solved.’
The idea is that reading causes behavioural changes through emotional responses to the written word, rather than a chemical shift in the brain as medication might.
It’s not just the written word that has this mood-enhancing effect. In a study last year in the journal Basic And Clinical Neuroscience, researchers at Tehran University in Iran tracked mood swings in 60 elderly people without depression while they listened to a series of eight audiobook stories. The results showed mood improved and volunteers were less anxious and aggressive.
Professor of psychiatry Carmine Pariante says print and audiobooks work better than similar TV shows because the reader has control over how long they spend reading or listening.
Of course reading is by no means a cure, Dr Brewster adds: ‘Patients using bibliotherapy also need to make other changes that will improve mental and physical health — such as increased exercise and a healthier diet.’
Professor Pariante agrees: ‘Reading is not a substitute for antidepressants in patients who really need them.’