How exercise can help combat depression
Resistance workouts were associated with
fewer depression symptoms regardless of whether participants had a
physical or mental health problem, although the effect was most
pronounced in adults with mild to moderate depression, the study team
reports in JAMA Psychiatry.
“Previous reviews have shown that exercise training of all types
improves depressive symptoms among otherwise healthy adults, adults with
a variety of medical conditions, and adults with the major depressive
disorder,” said lead author Brett Gordon, a researcher at the University
of Limerick in Ireland.
Most prior research, however, has focused more on aerobic exercises
like running and cycling rather than on resistance workouts like weight
lifting and strength training, Gordon said by email.
“In the trials included in our work, the effect of resistance
exercise training on depressive symptoms did not significantly vary
based on the features of the resistance exercise training, such as
frequency or intensity,” Gordon added.
On average, the resistance training programs in the small trials
included in the current study lasted about 16 weeks, although they
ranged in duration from 6 to 52 weeks.
Most often, the programs included three weekly exercise sessions,
although some had only two and others had as many as seven sessions per
week. Many of the resistance training programs included supervised
workouts alone or in combination with some unsupervised sessions.
In the subset of smaller trials that tracked whether people completed
exercise programs as directed, the adherence rate was 78 percent. Some
other trials reported only attendance, and this ranged from 88 percent
to 94 percent.
Resistance training was associated with a reduction in depression
symptoms regardless of how often people exercised. It also didn’t appear
to matter whether participants experienced improvements in strength or
gains in muscle mass.
Even though the smaller trials in the analysis were controlled
experiments designed to prove whether resistance training might be
better than inactivity for easing depression, these trials still didn’t
determine if exercise might work best alone, combined with medication or
psychotherapy, or as an alternative to those treatments. The study also
didn’t compare the effects of resistance training to aerobic exercise
or other types of workouts.
Moreover, several trials in the analysis did not track whether people
who were prescribed antidepressants took these medications as directed,
and this might independently influence the magnitude of any changes in
depression symptoms associated with exercise.
Even so, the results add to evidence that a range of exercises may be
able to help ease depression and other mood disorders, said Dianna
Purvis Jaffin of the Brain Performance Institute at the Center for
BrainHealth at the University of Texas at Dallas.
“The underlying message is to stay active, in whatever manner an
individual will adhere to over the long-term,” Jaffin, who wasn’t
involved in the study, said by email. “We should not strive to make it a
contest between aerobic exercise and resistance training,” Jaffin
added. “Both are essential to successful aging and independent living.”
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