Researchers found that exercise was just as good as therapy and even better than antidepressants.

Exercise should be a “core treatment” for people with depression, academics have said, after a new study suggested that some forms of exercise were just as good as therapy and even better than anti-depressants.

Walking, jogging, yoga and strength training appeared to be more effective than other types of exercises, according to a major new analysis.

And the more vigorous the exercise, the better, according to a research team led by academics in Australia.

But even low intensity exercises such as walking and yoga had meaningful benefit.

The effect of exercise appeared superior to antidepressants, according to the study which has been published in The BMJ.

But when exercise was combined with antidepressants, this improved the effect of the drugs.

  • TempermentalAnomaly@lemmy.worldEnglish
    2·
    9 months ago

    Thanks for the link.

    I think the authors shared your concern as well.

    Our review did not uncover clear causal mechanisms, but the trends in the data are useful for generating hypotheses. It is unlikely that any single causal mechanism explains all the findings in the review. Instead, we hypothesise that a combination of social interaction,61 mindfulness or experiential acceptance,62 increased self-efficacy,33 immersion in green spaces,63 neurobiological mechanisms,64 and acute positive affect65 combine to generate outcomes. Meta-analyses have found each of these factors to be associated with decreases in depressive symptoms, but no single treatment covers all mechanisms.