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Exercise Before CBT Raised Depression Remission to 69% in Pilot Trial

MHD featured image for exercise priming before CBT in major depression.

A 40-person pilot trial found depression remission in 69% of adults who did 30 minutes of moderate exercise before individual CBT, compared with 33% of adults who did a calming pre-CBT activity.1 Compared with a broad “exercise boosts therapy” claim, acute exercise is a plausible priming step; the alliance and activation mechanisms still need a …

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STAIR-R Did Not Beat Supportive Care for Refugee PTSD

A pilot randomized trial involving 71 refugees with posttraumatic stress disorder found large symptom improvement after narrative exposure therapy-based care, but adding refugee-adapted emotion-regulation training before narrative exposure therapy did not outperform supportive problem-solving before narrative exposure therapy in the full sample.1 Research Highlights 71 refugees were randomized: 35 received STAIR-R plus narrative exposure therapy, …

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Multiple Sclerosis Frailty Exercise Improved Fatigue in 6 Weeks

MHD featured image for multimodal exercise, frailty, fatigue, and quality of life in multiple sclerosis.

A 2026 pilot randomized trial in 16 frail adults with multiple sclerosis found that 6 weeks of supervised multimodal exercise was feasible: retention was 87.5%, adherence was 97.2%, no adverse events were recorded, and fatigue and quality-of-life scores moved more than they did with waitlist control.1 Research Highlights Feasibility cleared the prespecified bar: 14 of …

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