In a funk? Do you: a) reach for a bag of potato chips, b) call a friend, c) pop an extra anti-depressant, or d) head for the gym to sweat out the sadness?
A Vast Evidence Base
In order to synthesize the evidence on the positive and negative effects of physical activity on depression, anxiety, and psychological distress in adults, the Australian researchers performed an “umbrella overview,” a comprehensive analysis of all the work that has been done on the subject to date.The idea behind an umbrella review of this type is to try to quantify the strength of the signal.
One scientific study provides some direct evidence that a treatment is useful; but when hundreds of studies confirm each other, taken together, these studies more strongly suggest that a treatment or intervention may be widely effective and applicable.
Exercise Best Treatment for Depression
Mental health is often pushed to the fringe of health care, but half of all people experience some mental health distress at some point in their lives, and more than 10 percent of people worldwide are currently struggling with mental health.The Australian researchers discovered that exercise provided the best results when used for treating depression. More specifically, exercise was 150 percent more effective than pharmaceuticals or Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT).
It was also better than psychological consultation or “talk therapy.” In fact, exercise was shown to reduce depressive symptoms by 42 to 60 percent, whereas talk therapy and pharmaceuticals only reduced symptoms between 22 percent and 37 percent.
Any Kind of Exercise Works
Every kind of exercise worked. The numerous studies looked at many types and schedules of exercise, and they all worked—doing any movement regularly (including dancing, walking, and yoga) was a big improvement over doing nothing.The researchers, however, also found that short, intense bursts of exercise worked best. HIIT—“high-intensity interval training”—has become a trend in recent years, and perhaps for good reason.
A number of studies the researchers cited that focused on these brief “high-intensity interval training” (HIIT) workouts have shown stand-out results across the board.
But for older people, a simple daily walk of 20 to 40 minutes was also found to be particularly effective.
Good for Pregnant Women and People With Chronic Conditions
According to this study, exercise was especially helpful to the mental health of certain populations, including pregnant and postpartum women, people suffering from HIV, and those with kidney disease.Because the researchers looked at so many different studies, very different populations and subsets were looked at individually, and these groups of people stood out in particular.
The Exercise Cure?
As positive as the results of this review were, exercise isn’t a panacea that cures all mental health issues.But a great deal of the overall mental health burden is from common, mild-to-moderate mood disorders that appear to respond surprisingly well to exercise.
Yet the Australian researchers concluded that putting exercise at the forefront of treatment, augmenting it with counseling where helpful and drugs when needed, would be the best way forward to help the majority of people with the most common mental health issues, saving more aggressive interventions for issues that require them.
The logical conclusion from this Australian comprehensive review dovetails with these other studies: exercise—not pharmaceuticals—should be the first choice for treating depression, anxiety, and distress for most patients.