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