Saturday Quack – Exercise May Not Improve Depression
Sat, August 16, 2008 at 01:00AM
People with depression are urged to exercise – by family, friends, and their physicians. Exercise is considered one of the standard ‘treatments’ for depression, and there are studies that show it works. But a twin study – usually regarded as a fairly conclusive set-up – show the reverse. Publishing in the Archives of General Psychiatry, Netherlands researchers conducted a 10-year study in genetically identical twins.
Data from almost 6,000 twins in the Netherlands Twin Register were analyzed, looking at information on leisure-time exercise and scales of anxiety and depression. In those genetically-identical twins whose exercise levels differed one from the other, the twin who exercised more was not significantly less depressed or anxious than the one who exercised less.
So how does one explain the fact that regular exercise is linked to reduced anxious and depressive symptoms in the general population? The researchers say this study shows that the link is not a cause-and-effect – i.e. exercise doesn’t reduce depression or the risk of it. Rather, certain people with these symptoms are genetically unlikely to respond to an exercise-related action on mood; previous studies showing such a link might be due to non-inclusion of people with the genetic makeup of no-benefit-of-exercise depressives. (Maybe people with such types of depression just won’t go to the gym?)
This study really throws a spanner in the works of those trying a holistic approach to the treatment of depression. But there are so many proven benefits of exercise that I wouldn’t recommend abandoning it for treating almost anything.
Reader Comments (1)
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