Walking, jogging, yoga and strength training are effective treatments for depression, according to a study published in the British Medical Journal. Studies have found that while low-intensity exercise is effective, more intense exercise tends to have even greater benefits. The World Health Organization states that approximately 300 million people worldwide suffer from depression. Major depressive disorder is a leading cause of disability worldwide and has been found to reduce life satisfaction more than debt, divorce or diabetes, the report said.
Exercise is recommended as a ‘mainstay treatment’ for depression, along with psychotherapy and drugs, but guidelines on how best to prescribe exercise for treatment remain unclear It is. Researchers reviewed 218 relevant trials involving 14,170 people with depression. Bias was assessed for each trial, and exercise type, intensity, and frequency were recorded.
Walking and jogging have been shown to be effective for both men and women. Young people and women benefited most from strength training, while yoga was more effective for men and older people.
In a linked editorial, Juan Ángel Verón of the University of Malaga says that people with depression often experience symptoms of fatigue and low energy, which can make it difficult to exercise regularly. It pointed out. Health services “need to provide sufficient resources to make individualized and supervised exercise programs available to the entire population,” he wrote.
The authors of the BMJ study acknowledged that the quality of the evidence was low, with limited studies monitoring participants for more than a year. They also noted that many patients may have physical, psychological, and social barriers to participation.
According to the World Health Organization, an estimated 300 million people worldwide suffer from depression. Although treatment guidelines and preliminary data evaluations disagree about the most effective way to prescribe exercise for depression, exercise is often recommended in addition to psychotherapy or pharmacotherapy.
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