Source: MakeLemonade.nz
Adelaide – Exercise should be the primary treatment for depression and other common mental health conditions, according to University of South Australia (UniSA) researchers.
The most comprehensive review of research to date shows that mild to moderate symptoms of depression, anxiety, and psychological distress can be alleviated with physical activity.
According to their investigation, exercise is 1.5 times more effective than counselling and top medications. =
The study found that 12-week or shorter exercise interventions reduced mental health symptoms the most. The review has been published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine.
“Importantly, the research shows that it doesn’t take much for exercise to make a positive change to mental health,” clinical exercise physiologist Ben Singh from UniSA says.
Mental health disorders are a leading cause of health problems around the world. Costly for individuals and for society, poor mental health affected one in eight people in 2019 and recent studies show up to one in five people experience higher levels of psychological distress during middle age.
Previous studies have found patients suffering from depression, anxiety or other forms of psychological distress may benefit from physical activity just as much as they would from psychotherapy or pharmaceutical treatment.
Because individual studies have looked at such a wide variety of physical activity types, intensities, population subgroups, and comparison groups, it may be difficult for clinicians to make sense of evidence suggesting physical activity is beneficial in the treatment of mental health disorders.
The UniSA researchers conducted a broader type of study called an umbrella review, to evaluate how all kinds of physical activity affect depression, anxiety, and psychological distress in adults.
An umbrella review examines a collection of reviews rather than individual studies to provide an overall picture of what existing research says about a specific subject. Put simply, it provides ‘umbrella’ coverage of all the evidence on a topic. The research team extracted all the eligible studies published prior to 2022 from 12 electronic databases. Overall, they analysed 97 reviews that included 1039 trials with more than 128,119 participants.
When comparing the effects of exercise to those of usual care across all populations, they found exercise improved symptoms of depression, anxiety, and psychological distress 1.5 times better than talk therapy or medication.
The fact that longer interventions were less effective than shorter ones may seem to go against common sense. The authors suggest it is possible that this finding shows that people may find it burdensome to stick with longer exercise programs that may impact the psychological benefits.
Women who were pregnant or had recently given birth, people with depression, HIV and kidney disease, and healthy people benefited most.
The researchers say this may be reflecting populations that are more likely to have higher symptoms of depression and anxiety and lower levels of physical activity, and as a result, have more room for improvement than non-clinical populations.
Physical activity is highly beneficial for improving symptoms of depression, anxiety, and distress across a wide range of adult populations, including the general population, people with diagnosed mental health disorders and people with chronic disease.
