Exercise Is Equal To or Better
Than Some Anti-Depressants
Let's take a quick look at some studies that were trying to find out how exercise stacks up against antidepressants...
As you can see, exercise is at least as effective as some anti-depressants. Also noteworthy is the fact that exercise has been shown to help people who have failed to respond to antidepressant medications (Mather 2002).
Jim Johnson, PT
Is there proof that exercise is actually
effective in treating depression?
A lot. In medicine, if you want to prove that something is effective and really works, the best kind of study you can conduct is what's called a randomized controlled trial. While there are plenty of randomized controlled trials that I could tell you about, I don't want to overload you with study after study, so let me just tell you about a few of the better ones that have compared exercise to no treatment at all. These kinds of studies are good to look at, because if they show positive results, well, then you know that exercise is far better than leaving things alone and letting depression run its natural course.
Now one of these studies (Doyne 1987) took 40 subjects, diagnosed as having either a major or minor depressive disorder, and randomly assigned them to one of these three groups:
· a walking/running program or
· a weight lifting program or
· a waiting list control group
At the end of the study, follow-up showed that both exercise programs significantly reduced depression compared to the control group that did nothing. Noteworthy is the fact that none of the study subjects took antidepressants or received any other treatment for depression during the study.
Moving right along, another investigation (McCann 1984), took forty-three subjects considered to be depressed according to the Beck Depression Inventory (one of the most commonly used scales in research studies), and randomized them to one of three groups:
· an aerobic exercise group or
· a relaxation group or
· no treatment at all
The results? Subjects who exercised showed greater decreases in depression than the those in the other two groups.
And last but not least, this particular study (McNeil 1991) took 30 depressed individuals (according to the Beck Depression Inventory), and randomly assigned them to either a walking/casual conversation group, a casual conversation group, or a waiting list. No subjects took antidepressants or received any other treatment for depression during the study. As with the two previous studies mentioned above, the group that exercised once again had the biggest decrease in depressive symptoms.
As you can tell, there's more than one randomized controlled trial conducted in this area that proves exercise can actually beat depression-and as you will see, that's only the tip of the iceberg. Additionally, I can name at least six published review articles that have looked at the effect of exercise on depression (Mead 2008, Sjosten 2006, Stathopoulou 2006, Lawlor 2001, Craft 1998, and North 1990) and all have found that exercise was effective. Keep in mind that these are studies where researchers have systematically searched the entire medical literature to see what overall conclusions can be drawn.
So when all is said and done, the answer to the question, "What proof is there that exercise is actually effective in treating depression?" should now be obvious: multiple randomized controlled trials - which are the highest form of proof in medicine that a treatment is really effective!
The bottom line is that exercise is free and proven to work - and in my opinion, a very underused tool.
Jim Johnson, PT
What kind of exercise is best
when it comes to treating depression?
If you take all the studies that have shown exercise to be effective in treating depression, and lay them all out on a table as I have done, you notice one thing fairly quickly – most of the research has focused on two kinds of exercise. They are...
Since these two types of exercise have been studied and tested-out the most, they are the two kind that I recommend for treating depression. But is one better than the other?
Well, there hasn’t been a lot of research done that has specifically compared the two types head-to-head, but there is some. For instance in one study (Doyne 1987), researchers took 40 subjects diagnosed with either a major or minor depressive disorder, and randomly assigned them to either walk/run on an indoor track, strength train of weight machines, or remain on a waiting list. At the end of the study, results showed that both types of exercise were equally effective in reducing depression compared to the wait-list control group.
In addition to this, there have been many randomized controlled trials that have used either strengthening exercises or aerobic exercises individually with good results. Therefore, according to the available research, both are potent treatments for depression, with no one kind of exercise standing out as being the best one of all.
Jim Johnson, PT
Than Some Anti-Depressants
Let's take a quick look at some studies that were trying to find out how exercise stacks up against antidepressants...
- exercise was compared to the antidepressant medication Zoloft in this study (Blumenthal 2007). 202 adults diagnosed with major depression were randomized to either supervised exercise, home-based exercise, Zoloft, or a placebo pill. Results showed that exercise was equal to the antidepressant medication in the treatment of patients with major depressive disorder.
- in this interesting study, 86 patients who had been taking a therapeutic dose of antidepressant medication for at least 6 weeks without any benefit were randomized to either an exercise group or a control group (health education talks). At 10-weeks, researchers found that significantly more people in the exercise group were less depressed than in the control group (Mather 2002).
As you can see, exercise is at least as effective as some anti-depressants. Also noteworthy is the fact that exercise has been shown to help people who have failed to respond to antidepressant medications (Mather 2002).
Jim Johnson, PT
Is there proof that exercise is actually
effective in treating depression?
A lot. In medicine, if you want to prove that something is effective and really works, the best kind of study you can conduct is what's called a randomized controlled trial. While there are plenty of randomized controlled trials that I could tell you about, I don't want to overload you with study after study, so let me just tell you about a few of the better ones that have compared exercise to no treatment at all. These kinds of studies are good to look at, because if they show positive results, well, then you know that exercise is far better than leaving things alone and letting depression run its natural course.
Now one of these studies (Doyne 1987) took 40 subjects, diagnosed as having either a major or minor depressive disorder, and randomly assigned them to one of these three groups:
· a walking/running program or
· a weight lifting program or
· a waiting list control group
At the end of the study, follow-up showed that both exercise programs significantly reduced depression compared to the control group that did nothing. Noteworthy is the fact that none of the study subjects took antidepressants or received any other treatment for depression during the study.
Moving right along, another investigation (McCann 1984), took forty-three subjects considered to be depressed according to the Beck Depression Inventory (one of the most commonly used scales in research studies), and randomized them to one of three groups:
· an aerobic exercise group or
· a relaxation group or
· no treatment at all
The results? Subjects who exercised showed greater decreases in depression than the those in the other two groups.
And last but not least, this particular study (McNeil 1991) took 30 depressed individuals (according to the Beck Depression Inventory), and randomly assigned them to either a walking/casual conversation group, a casual conversation group, or a waiting list. No subjects took antidepressants or received any other treatment for depression during the study. As with the two previous studies mentioned above, the group that exercised once again had the biggest decrease in depressive symptoms.
As you can tell, there's more than one randomized controlled trial conducted in this area that proves exercise can actually beat depression-and as you will see, that's only the tip of the iceberg. Additionally, I can name at least six published review articles that have looked at the effect of exercise on depression (Mead 2008, Sjosten 2006, Stathopoulou 2006, Lawlor 2001, Craft 1998, and North 1990) and all have found that exercise was effective. Keep in mind that these are studies where researchers have systematically searched the entire medical literature to see what overall conclusions can be drawn.
So when all is said and done, the answer to the question, "What proof is there that exercise is actually effective in treating depression?" should now be obvious: multiple randomized controlled trials - which are the highest form of proof in medicine that a treatment is really effective!
The bottom line is that exercise is free and proven to work - and in my opinion, a very underused tool.
Jim Johnson, PT
What kind of exercise is best
when it comes to treating depression?
If you take all the studies that have shown exercise to be effective in treating depression, and lay them all out on a table as I have done, you notice one thing fairly quickly – most of the research has focused on two kinds of exercise. They are...
- strengthening exercises, also known as weight lifting or resistance training. Examples include lifting dumbbells or using weight machines.
- aerobic exercises, also known as endurance or cardiovascular exercises. Some examples include walking or running.
Since these two types of exercise have been studied and tested-out the most, they are the two kind that I recommend for treating depression. But is one better than the other?
Well, there hasn’t been a lot of research done that has specifically compared the two types head-to-head, but there is some. For instance in one study (Doyne 1987), researchers took 40 subjects diagnosed with either a major or minor depressive disorder, and randomly assigned them to either walk/run on an indoor track, strength train of weight machines, or remain on a waiting list. At the end of the study, results showed that both types of exercise were equally effective in reducing depression compared to the wait-list control group.
In addition to this, there have been many randomized controlled trials that have used either strengthening exercises or aerobic exercises individually with good results. Therefore, according to the available research, both are potent treatments for depression, with no one kind of exercise standing out as being the best one of all.
Jim Johnson, PT
