10 weeks of physical exercise or light therapy: what’s it like to participate in our clinical trial?

In 2017, under the umbrella of an EU-funded CoCA project (Comorbid Conditions of ADHD), we started a pilot clinical trial to test the potential of bright light therapy and physical exercise to improve and prevent depression and obesity in adolescents and young adults with ADHD. Our aim is to provide non-pharmacological interventions that could easily be done at home and integrated into daily routines.

The study (named PROUD) is simultaneously going on in Frankfurt, Barcelona, London and Nijmegen. 60 people have already participated across these different locations. As the study is still ongoing (we’re about half way), we don’t have the results yet. However, we have interviewed some people who have taken part so far about their experiences with the interventions and their experience of living with ADHD. Their enlightening reports also give us the great opportunity to learn more how it feels for adolescents and young adults to live with ADHD – a disorder that is still seen as predominantly childhood condition. These interviews will be posted on this blog in the following months, but the first one you can already read here. We would like to extend our gratitude to our study participants, not only for participating but also for giving up their time to answer our questions.

Awareness about ADHD

This month – which is the ADHD awareness month -, we interviewed a 21-year old male college student who is originally from Peru but has been living in Barcelona for a few years who participated in the exercise intervention. You can read the interview here. During this interview he said that “The worst thing about having ADHD is that people have a lot of prejudices about it and have a lot of incorrect thoughts about what it means.” These real-life patient highlighted issues emphasize the importance of raising public awareness of ADHD.

 About the clinical study

Stimulant medications are the mainstay treatment for the typical symptoms of ADHD¹. However, many patients (about 85% of adults with ADHD)) also suffer from psychiatric and somatic comorbidities – including mood disorders² and obesity³. The risk for these co-morbid conditions is especially high for patients during adolescence and young adulthood⁴. Bright light therapy (BLT) is an established therapy for major depression and exercise prevents and reduces obesity and improves depressive symptoms, however it is not yet known whether these therapies are effective in adolescents and adults with ADHD. To support patients during the 10 weeks of intervention, a mobile technology was developed specifically for this trial by the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology. Patients receive app-based instructions and feedback via a smartphone and they wear a sensor that records their physical activity and light exposure throughout the study. We earlier wrote about this study in two Blogs. CoCA-PROUD trial ready to roll How bright light and physical exercise might help ADHD patients

Are you interested in participating, or do you want more information?

The trial will be continued until 2020. All outpatients with ADHD aged 14 to 45 years old living in and around Barcelona, Frankfurt, London or Nijmegen are invited to participate in the trial.

Contact:

Barcelona:

Frankfurt:

London:

Nijmegen:

More information about the trial can be found on the CoCA website: coca-phase-iia-trial/study/

References    

¹Cortese S, Adamo N, Del Giovane C, Mohr-Jensen C, Hayes AJ, Carucci S, et al. Comparative efficacy and tolerability of medications for attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder in children, adolescents, and adults: a systematic review and network meta-analysis. Lancet Psychiatry. 2018;5(9):727-738.

²Jacob CP, Romanos J, Dempfle A, Heine M, Windemuth-Kieselbach C, Kruse A, et al. Co-morbidity of adult attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder with focus on personality traits and related disorders in a tertiary referral center. Eur Arch Psychiatry Clin Neurosci. 2007;257:309–17.

³ Cortese S, Moreira-Maia CR, St Fleur D, Morcillo-Penalver C, Rohde LA, Faraone SV. Association between ADHD and obesity: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Am J Psychiatry. 2016;173:34–43.

⁴Meinzer MC, Lewinsohn PM, Pettit JW, Seeley JR, Gau JM, Chronis-Tuscano A, et al. Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder in adolescence predicts onset of major depressive disorder through early adulthood. Depress Anxiety. 2013;30:546–53.

This post was written by Jutta Mayer and Adam Pawley. Jutta Mayer is a psychologist and psychotherapist at the University Hospital Frankfurt. She is the clinical project manager of the PROUD study which is part of the CoCA project (www.coca-project.eu). Adam Pawley is a clinical neuroscientist at King’s College London. He is conducting the PROUD trial in London.