According to a study published by the British Medical Journal, walking and jogging, yoga and strength training are effective treatments for depression. The study found that while low-intensity exercise is helpful, more vigorous activity provides even greater benefits. The World Health Organization says that approximately 300 million people globally suffer from depression. Major depressive disorder is the leading cause of disability worldwide and has been found to reduce life satisfaction more than debt, divorce and diabetes, the report said.
Exercise, along with psychotherapy and medications, has been recommended as the “main treatment” for depression, but guidelines are unclear on how to prescribe exercise to treat it. Researchers reviewed 218 relevant trials involving 14,170 participants with depression. Each trial was assessed for bias and the type, intensity and frequency of exercise was recorded.
Walking or jogging was found to be effective for both men and women. While young people and women benefited most from strength training, yoga was more effective for men as well as older adults.
In an associated editorial, Juan Angel Bellon of the University of Málaga pointed out that regular exercise can prove challenging for people suffering from depression, as they often experience symptoms of fatigue and low energy. “Health services should provide adequate resources to make individualized and supervised exercise programs accessible to the entire population,” they wrote.
The authors of the BMJ study acknowledge that the quality of the evidence is low and that studies that monitored participants for a year or longer were limited. They also noted that many patients may also have physical, psychological, or social barriers to participation.
According to the World Health Organization, depression affects an estimated 300 million individuals globally. Exercise is often recommended in addition to psychotherapy and medication, although there is disagreement between treatment guidelines and prior data assessments regarding the most effective way to prescribe exercise for depression.
