Exercise for depression

[littlemissmartypants]

Rationale
Depression is a common cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide. Depression is often treated with antidepressants or psychological therapy, or both, but some people may prefer alternative approaches such as exercise. This review updates one first published in 2008 and last updated in 2013.

Objectives
To determine the effectiveness of exercise in the treatment of depression in adults compared with no intervention, waiting list control or placebo, or where exercise is used as an adjunct to an established treatment that is received by both exercising and non‐exercising groups. To determine the effectiveness of exercise compared with other active interventions for depression in adults (psychological therapies, pharmacological treatments or alternative interventions such as light therapy).

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Eligibility criteria
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Outcomes
The primary outcome we assessed was a measure of depression or mood at the end of treatment and at any longer‐term follow‐up. Other outcomes were treatment acceptability, quality of life, cost and adverse events.
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Authors' conclusions
Exercise may be moderately more effective than a control intervention for reducing symptoms of depression. Exercise appears to be no more or less effective than psychological or pharmacological treatments, though this conclusion is based on a few small trials.
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https://www.cochranelibrary.com/cdsr/doi/10.1002/14651858.CD004366.pub7/full
https://doi.org/10.1002/14651858.CD004366.pub7

[crimycarny]

1. I saw a study that showed high intensity exercise was more effective than SSRIs

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5430071/

I lost my son to suicide a little over 4 years ago. Though never diagnosed with a mental illness, I think he most likely would have been diagnosed with depression along with an anxiety disorder.

During the time he was struggling (during the COVID shutdown), I remember urging him to exercise. I had started running at age 19, and it had a huge positive effect on my anxiety (still running at age 66).

After he died by suicide, I kept berating myself for such a stupid suggestion. That's when I started researching exercis and it's effect on depression. Several studies showed that high-intensity exercise, like running, had a more significant positive impact on depression than SSRIs. So I guess it wasn't that dumb of a suggestion, I just wish I'd pushed it more.

[littlemissmartypants]

2. Thank you so much for your reply, crimycarny. I'm so, so sorry to hear about the loss of your son.

[Alephy]

3. Thank you for posting this important information.

And I am very sorry about your son and your feelings of guilt.