Using Exercise to Help Treat Depression

People with severe depression are often encouraged to exercise, without much being known about the amount of exercise required.  To help uncover this, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center scientists have examined the benefits of exercise as an assistant ‘medication’ in treating major depression.  Their findings are published in the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry.

Patients between 18 and 70 who had been diagnosed with depression an average of 7 years ago and who had not achieved remission by taking a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (an SSRI, e.g. Prozac, Zoloft) were allocated to one of two groups, each receiving a different level of exercise intensity, for 12 weeks.  Exercise was on treadmills, exercise bicycles, or both.  The sessions were supervised by expert staff at the Cooper Institute, with added home-based sessions to fulfill the weekly exercise requirement.  One group exercised to a level of 16 kcal/kg per week (a high level), and the other to a level of 4 kcal/kg per week (moderate level).  SSRI treatment was held constant during the study.

At the end of the study there were significant improvements in both groups.  The remission rate in the group doing high level exercise averaged 28.3%, while for the lower level group it was 15.5%;  however, these rates were not significantly different, statistically speaking, from one another.  Further analysis showed that higher-dose exercise had better remission rates for all the men in the study, and for women with a family history of mental illness.

Common practice in treating patients with major depression that fails to respond to an SSRI is to add a different type of medication.  This study shows that intense or even moderate exercise could take the place of this second drug, although selection of the appropriate patients for this approach is advisable.