Aerobic exercise benefits people with depression, especially those whose symptoms are more severe.
Depression, often referred to as major depressive disorder in the clinical or research setting, is characterized by profound sadness, fatigue, altered sleep and appetite, and feelings of guilt or low self-worth. Although pharmaceutical treatments for depression are available, many people with depression do not respond to the medications. A new study demonstrates that aerobic exercise benefits people with depression, especially those whose symptoms are more severe.
Previous research has demonstrated that aerobic exercise reduces depressive symptoms, but scientists aren’t sure what mechanisms drive the improvements. Two areas of interest are reward processing (the brain’s response to rewarding stimuli) and cognitive control (the ability to concentrate and make decisions).
The intervention study involved 66 young adults (average age, 20 years) who had major depressive disorder. About half of the participants completed an eight-week program of moderate-intensity aerobic exercise, while the remainder completed an eight-week program of light stretching. The authors of the study tracked the participants' depressive symptoms throughout the study and assessed their reward processing and cognitive control before and after the intervention.
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They found that aerobic exercise reduced the participants' depressive symptoms better than light stretching. Neither form of activity had an effect on reward processing or cognitive control. However, participants whose depressive symptoms were more severe and scored high in terms of reward processing were more likely to respond to the aerobic program as opposed to the stretching program.
These findings demonstrate that incorporating aerobic exercise programs into treatment protocols for people with depression might be beneficial in reducing depressive symptoms. Learn more about the growing body of evidence supporting the use of exercise in preventing and treating depression in this podcast featuring Dr. Rhonda Patrick.