HoldsUp

Ashley Mason

Osher Center for Integrative Medicine at UCSF

Ashley Mason is a clinical psychologist and the director of the Sleep, Eating, and Affect Laboratory at the Osher Center for Integrative Medicine at UCSF. Her research focuses on non-pharmacological treatments for depression, insomnia, and eating behaviors, including cognitive behavioral therapy and whole-body hyperthermia. Additionally, her published work examines the application of wearable device metrics to analyze sleep, body temperature dynamics, and physiological health.

31 claims checked on air: 2 context 1 overstated 27 supported 1 unverified

What they said on air - unverified

2 citing their own research

0:27:13unverifiedlowDr. Ashley Mason on Sauna Use for Depression, Conquering Ins

A review by Janssen and Raison found that whole-body hyperthermia protocols with a longer duration spent reaching peak body temperature showed larger effect sizes in depression score reduction.

"in a recent paper that actually incidentally Janssen and Raison had written together, they reviewed some of the studies that exist looking at whole-body hyperthermia for depression. And one of the things they noted is that the effect sizes of the change in depression from before to after the intervention—in other words, the size of the reduction in depression—was higher if people spent more time getting to that peak temperature." (said at 0:27:13)

No published record matching a review by Janssen and Raison that found whole-body hyperthermia protocols with longer durations spent reaching peak body temperature produce larger effect sizes in depression score reduction was located; this does not prove the claim false. While Janssen, Raison, and colleagues have published trials demonstrating the antidepressant effects of whole-body hyperthermia (such as JAMA Psychiatry 2016), an indexed review specifically analyzing effect sizes as a function of the rate or duration of heating to peak temperature was not found.

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