Lifting Depression: A Neuroscientist's Hands-On Approach to Activating Your Brain's Healing Power [Hardcover]

Kelly Lambert (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 8, 2008

Today’s young adults are up to ten times more likely to experience depression than their grandparents were. Could it be that in our increasingly automated world, the reduced physical effort needed to accomplish anything may somehow interfere with our level of happiness and subsequent responses to stress? Neuroscientist Kelly Lambert finds compelling evidence that having to work hard for rewards significantly improves mood and prevents depression. Beginning with her innovative research on rats-she compared “trust-fund rats” (whose rewards came with no effort on their part) to hard-working “trained-to-succeed” rodents-Lambert offers hope of treatment for people without debilitating (and often ineffective) drugs. Drawing on a wealth of information from the fields of anthropology, neuroscience, and evolutionary psychology, Lambert develops a unique theory suggesting that physical effort directed toward tangible outcomes activates particular regions of the brain and builds resilience against the emotional emptiness and negative thinking associated with depression. Whereas most therapies emphasize the importance of mental activity, Lambert reminds us of the importance of physical activity in establishing control in a fast-paced culture that is focused more on the prospect of immediate gratification than savoring the fruits of our labor.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Frank Forencich, author of "Exuberant Animal: The Power of Health, Play and Joyful Movement""
""Kelly Lambert offers us a comprehensive and compelling view of health that is holistic, practical and visionary. Her work on the efforts-based rewards system not only explains much of our modern discontent, it also offers a path to vitality and exuberance. This book will not only change our views on depression, it will transform our understanding of our bodies and our predicament in the modern world."

About the Author

Kelly Lambert, Ph.D., is Chair of Psychology at Randolph-Macon College and has published widely in the neuroscientific literature. Her smart-rats research, which is described in The Mommy Brain, was most recently presented on ABC’s “World News Tonight.” She lives in Mechanicsville, Virginia.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: Basic Books (April 8, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0465037720
• ISBN-13: 978-0465037728
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.5 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,165,199 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Misleading subtitle, January 21, 2010

By 

Kristin - See all my reviews

This review is from: Lifting Depression: A Neuroscientist's Hands-On Approach to Activating Your Brain's Healing Power (Paperback)

Lifting Depression doesn't really do what it advertises. It doesn't provide compelling evidence that using our hands to produce meaningful outcomes (as in housecleaning, gardening, sewing, and so forth) can cure, or even prevent, depression. The author begins building the case, but then admits that "Of course, I'm not suggesting that people who are depressed can relieve their symptoms simply by cleaning their houses." So, if people can't even relieve a symptom or two by hands-on effort, what is the book about?

Actually, the book is a reasonable attempt to disabuse the public of the idea that depression is caused by serotonin deficiency, and the related idea that antidepressant drugs are an effective and sufficient way for most people to cure their depression. Depression is a complicated disease with many causes and to treat it effectively, most sufferers will need to approach it from a number of different directions.

The author is particularly interested in the "effort-driven reward circuit" of the brain, i.e., engaging your hands in productive, effortful activity that has concrete, satisfying ends (a clean house, say). It is unfortunate that she doesn't have more evidence for her thesis, but that doesn't mean it won't work. I know from experience that when I am depressed, it is helpful to do something active, and doing something with the particular purpose of relieving your depression can act like a placebo: you believe, to some degree, that what you're doing may help you, and therefore, sometimes, it does.

At any rate, those who say that the author must be wrong because they or someone they know is depressed despite cleaning and cooking on a regular basis are not quite getting it. Medication, therapy, and exercise are all proven antidepressants, yet many who use them are depressed. All this shows is that no method works for everyone all the time. The key, it seems to me, is a multi-pronged approach.

So for those readers who are still thinking that depression is all about chemicals, I can recommend this book. There is a lot to know about depression and this book presents much useful information in an easy-to-read way.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Recommended for both health libraries and general-interest lending collections alike, September 11, 2008

By 

Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Lifting Depression: A Neuroscientist's Hands-On Approach to Activating Your Brain's Healing Power (Hardcover)

Depression is a devastating condition which immobilizes millions each year: that's why LIFTING DEPRESSION: A NEUROSCIENTIST'S HANDS-ON APPROACH TO ACTIVATING YOUR BRAIN'S HEALING POWER is so wide-ranging and important, recommended for both health libraries and general-interest lending collections alike. New research with rats (whose brains are similar to humans) leads to identification of a circuit in the human brain responsible for negative thinking and depression - and also shows how hands-on physical activities yield rewards and fight depression. Even knitting or gardening works to stimulate the body's own depression-fighting chemicals: LIFTING DEPRESSION is a solid move to individual freedom.

Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars LEND OURSELVES A HAND, January 16, 2009

By 

JCW "SPHERICAL" (ARKANSAS, N.L.R.) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Lifting Depression: A Neuroscientist's Hands-On Approach to Activating Your Brain's Healing Power (Hardcover)

What is it about productive thoughts, when converted to actual results,
provide our brain that 'just-rite' dose of neurochemicals, that present our minds with 'that-feelin' of contented pleasure? Dr. Kelly Lambert should have received a multitude of 'neuro-bombs' in her synaptic clefts,
[before-during-after] the production of this most enlightening book...
LIFTING DEPRESSION.

The 'meat-n-taters' of this work are geared around the Effort-Driven Reward [EDR] circuit of our brain that consist of the following:

o- Nucleus Accumbens ...pleasure center
o- Striatum ...motor system
o- Prefrontal Cortex ...cognitive thinking/planning/decision/memory
o- Limbic System ...emotion and learning

These 'rewards' are NOT confined to the physical effort alone, but involve complex thought processes within the realms of anticipation/expectation. When we anticipate... [MORE]-activity occurs in the pleasure center of the brain (nucleus accumbens) than actually achieving a task. The accumbens is positioned between the brain's motor system (striatum), which controls our movements, and the (limbic system), a collection of structures involved in emotion and learning. The accumbens is a MAJOR LINK between our emotions and our actions. Finally, all of these components connect/filter thru the (prefrontal cortex), where our cognitive thought processes, planning, decision-making and such blend into the mix.

In fact, she claims practically every major symptom of depression correlates with a brain part on this circuit. Loss of pleasure?-(nucleus accumbens)...Sluggishness/slow motor responses?-(striatum)...Negative
feelings?-(limbic system)...Poor concentration?-(prefrontal cortex).

Dr. Lambert's message of a "HANDS-ON" approach to the constructive oriented effort, tends to activate/fire-off the neurons that seek out to
connect these areas/regions/structures/components that mystically provide
a happy/content/pleasing effect on our mind. Yet, in the absence of such
motion/motor/manual activity, depressive symptom(s) are more likely to emerge.

Finally, Dr. Lambert includes impressive research on rats, that verify the claims made above and within the book as well. She promotes the nonpharmcological treatment for depression strongly based in the [EDR]
approach, which includes not only constructive hand skills- (knitting/gardening/carpentry/art/cooking/etc.) but basic (exercise/walking/swimming/gaming/etc.) all common sense stuff we all should "know", but now have more empirical evidence that ought to convince us to ..." LEND OURSELVES A HAND ".

I would also recommend: SPARK ...the revolutionary new science of exercise
and the brain. By: Dr. John J. Ratey ;he claims you can supercharge your mental circuits to beat stress, sharpen your thinking, lift your mood, boost your memory and much more....