Exercise seems to help alleviate depression, but not for everybody.
By Jill U. Adams March 17 at 10:00 AM I hear it often: A friend swears that her running practice staves off bouts of low spirits. Another says going to the gym before work keeps him mentally steady.Those anecdotes prompt some questions. Is there evidence to support the idea that exercise can have an effect on depression? And if so, how much exercise? A number of research studies have been done to answer those questions and others.
That’s right, the supervised exercisers did as well as the people who took an antidepressant. As promising as these results were, however, it was a small study. Still, a number of scientists have combined results from the many small studies to see if an overall effect can be described. These review papers generally find a small to moderate effect of exercise in the research studies. How does that evidence translate to the real world?
Mental health practitioners probably will mention exercise, along with other healthy behaviors such as sleep, to their patients, even as they prescribe talk therapy or medication as the main treatments. But it’s not clear how many psychologists or psychiatrists actually prescribe exercise as a treatment.Antonia Baum, a psychiatrist in private practice in Bethesda, says, “I always take an exercise history with my patients.
A few studies have found positive effects with resistance training or weight-based exercise, but there’s more evidence for aerobic activity. In other words, don’t undertake exercise-as-treatment on your own. If you’re really depressed, you need treatment and oversight. For instance, exercise doesn’t always work. You may put yourself at risk of not having other treatments at the ready if you’re not seeing a provider of some kind.
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