SBT Seabuckthorn Blog

According to this article, published in 2005, the National Institute of Mental Health says that in any given year, nearly 19 million adults in America have a depressive illness – more than 9% of the population. Only 23% of sufferers get any treatment at all, and only 10% receive adequate treatment.

Researchers have long known that exercise is an affordable, socially neutral and effective treatment for mild to moderate depression, but it was unclear – until now – exactly how effective exercise can be.

In a study through the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, 80 adults between 20-45 with untreated mild to moderate depression were put through one of five supervised fitness programmes, with the least strenuous being 45-60 minutes a week of flexibility exercises, and the most being 150 minutes a week of moderate aerobic exercise (on treadmills and stationary bikes). The programmes lasted 12 weeks.

All the participants recorded an improvement in their depression symptoms, with the most dramatic improvement displayed by the participants in the most vigorous programme, 30 minutes of moderate aerobic exercise 5 days a week. This group showed a 47% improvement of symptoms, with 42% of participants reporting a remission of their depression – comparable rates to cognitive (talk) therapy and pharmaceutical remedies.

The other participants also experienced improvement, but not to the same degree as those who did the most strenuous programme. Psychiatry professor Madhukar Trivedi, MD attributes the most dramatic improvement to both the intensity and duration of the workouts:

“The key is the intensity of the exercise and continuing it for 30-35 minutes per day.”

The study focused on mild to moderate depression exhibited in young adults, and doesn’t constitute a recommendation to abandon other forms of depression treatment.

In other mental health news, cognitive therapy may be as effective as antidepressants for moderate to severe depression, and the positive effects last longer. This article, published in 2005, indicates that both methods are significantly better than placebos, but cognitive therapy is better at preventing relapses. In a random double-blind study, antidepressants and cognitive therapy patients showed comparable improvements, but the cognitive therapy participants showed less recidivism after the study was over.

Researchers believe that the coping skills conferred by talk therapy are what made the difference to those participants.

The study also suggested that not only can the skill level of cognitive therapists affect outcomes, but the skill of prescribing physicians can also affect the outcomes of patients treated with pharmaceuticals.

UPDATE: Vic Richards says in a recent blog post that the latest news on exercise and depression includes a study that exercise is as good as an anti-depressant in treating major depression. I’d love to see the study or an article about it, but I couldn’t figure out how to leave Vic a comment.   

UPDATE 2: Thanks to Bill Maher, as detailed in this post, I now know that Duke University recently published a study showing that exercise equals drug therapies for major depression.