Walking, jogging, yoga and strength training found to reduce depression

Walking, jogging, yoga, and strength training are the most effective forms of exercise for relieving depression, either alone or in conjunction with established treatments such as psychotherapy or drugs, according to the American Journal of Science. This is suggested in a published evidence review. BMJ.

Although low-intensity activities such as walking and yoga can have benefits, the results suggest that the more active you are, the greater the benefits are likely to be.

The authors stress that confidence in many of the research findings remains low and higher quality research is needed, but these forms of exercise are “not recommended for use in psychotherapy as a core treatment for depression.” “It may be considered alongside drugs and other drugs.”

The World Health Organization estimates that more than 300 million people worldwide suffer from depression. Although exercise is often recommended alongside psychotherapy and pharmacotherapy, there is no consensus in treatment guidelines or reviews of the evidence to date on how best to prescribe exercise to treat depression. yeah.

To address this uncertainty, researchers traversed databases that compared exercise as a treatment for depression to established treatments (e.g., SSRI antidepressants, cognitive behavioral therapy), and active controls ( We looked for randomized trials comparing usual care, placebo tablets), or untreated controls.

They found 218 relevant trials involving 14,170 participants with depression for analysis. Each trial was assessed for bias and the type, intensity, and frequency of each exercise intervention were recorded.

Other potentially influential factors were also considered, such as participants’ gender, age, baseline level of depression, pre-existing conditions, and differences between groups.

Compared to active controls, dancing showed a significant reduction in depression, and walking and jogging, yoga, strength training, mixed aerobic exercise, and tai chi and qi gong showed moderate reductions.

Moderate, clinically meaningful effects were also found when combining exercise with SSRIs or aerobic exercise with psychotherapy, suggesting that exercise may be an additional option alongside these established treatments. It has been suggested that it may be of benefit.

Walking and jogging were effective for both men and women, but strength training was more effective for women, and yoga and qigong were more effective for men. Also, yoga was more effective among older people, while strength training was more effective among younger people.

Mild physical activities such as walking and yoga had clinically meaningful benefits, but more intense forms of exercise such as running and interval training had greater benefits.

Exercise appeared to be equally effective for people with and without other health conditions and with different baseline levels of depression. The effects were similar for individual and group exercise.

The authors acknowledge that the quality of the evidence is low, with few trials monitoring participants for more than a year. Researchers also note that many patients may have physical, psychological, or social barriers to participation.

Nevertheless, they suggest that a combination of social interaction, mindfulness, and immersion in green spaces may help explain the positive effects.

“Our findings support the inclusion of exercise, especially strenuous exercise, as part of clinical practice guidelines for depression,” the researchers said. “Health care systems may want to offer these treatments as an alternative or adjunct to other established interventions, while reducing the physical health risks associated with depression.”

“Primary care clinicians can now recommend exercise, psychotherapy, or antidepressants as sole alternatives for adults with mild or moderate depression,” said Juan Angel of the University of Malaga.・Mr. Bellon explains in the linked editorial.

She noted that regular exercise can be difficult for people with depression, and said research using real-world data is needed to evaluate physical activity programs for people with depression.

He pointed to recent efforts by the European Union to promote physical activity across its member states, calling on health services, local and national governments to “ensure that whole populations have access to personalized and supervised physical activity programmes.” We urge them to provide sufficient resources to enable them to do so.”