Exercise is medicine for depression: even when the “pill” is small

Exercise effects on cognitive functioning in young adults with first-episode psychosis: FitForLife

“…The participant sample is substantially larger than many previous investigations of exercise in psychosis (Firth et al 2015). Although sub-optimal, exercise adherence was comparable to the previous trials, and sufficiently regular to elicit improvements in mental health outcome (Hallgren et al 2016 a ). As recently recommended, all exercise sessions were designed and supervised by suitably qualified trainers (Vancampfort et al 2016).…”

“…The drop-out rate from the study was 22%, which is slightly lower than the pooled drop-out rate reported in a recent meta-analysis of exercise trials in schizophrenia (26.7%) (Vancampfort et al 2016). Moreover, although regular exercise is recommended (3–4 times weekly) (Garber et al 2011), less frequent exercise has also been associated with clinically relevant improvements in mental health (Hallgren et al 2016 a , b ).…”

Acute Bouts of Exercising Improved Mood, Rumination and Social Interaction in Inpatients With Mental Disorders

“…On the other hand, meta-analyses and systematic reviews support the notion that “exercise as medicine” ( Pedersen and Saltin, 2015 ; Gerber et al, 2016 ; Hallgren et al, 2016 ) also benefits patients with mental disorders such as major depressive disorders ( Knapen et al, 2015 ; Stubbs et al, 2016 ; Bailey et al, 2017 ; Krogh et al, 2017 ; Schuch et al, 2017 ; Sukhato et al, 2017 ; Vancampfort et al, 2017a ; Wu et al, 2017 ), including among elderly patients ( Mikkelsen et al, 2017 ; Perez-Lopez et al, 2017 ), post-partum depression ( McCurdy et al, 2017 ; Poyatos-Leon et al, 2017 ; Pritchett et al, 2017 ; Saligheh et al, 2017 ), bipolar disorders ( Vancampfort et al, 2017a ), post-traumatic stress disorders ( Rosenbaum et al, 2015 ; Vancampfort et al, 2016 ), anxiety disorders ( Gordon et al, 2017 ; Stubbs et al, 2017 ; Vancampfort et al, 2017b , c , d ), and psychosis/schizophrenia ( Pajonk et al, 2010 ; Keller-Varady et al, 2017 ; Mittal et al, 2017 ; Tarpada and Morris, 2017 ; Vancampfort et al, 2017a ), while among patients with substance use disorders the evidence supporting regular exercise is weaker [alcohol use disorder: ( Vancampfort et al, 2015a ; Hallgren et al, 2017 ); tobacco use disorder: ( Ussher et al, 2014 )].…”

Multiple Sclerosis: Associations Between Physical Disability and Depression Are Not Mediated by Self-Reported Physical Activity

“…As an additional strategy for coping with symptoms of depression, regular physical activity has gained increased attention for its efficacy in nonclinical samples (Cooney et al., 2013; Josefsson, Lindwall, & Archer, 2014; Krogh, Nordentoft, Sterne, & Lawlor, 2011; Lawlor & Hopker, 2001; Mead et al., 2009; Rethorst, Wipfli, & Landers, 2009; Stathopoulou, Powers, Berry, Smits, & Otto, 2006), among patients with major depressive disorders (Gerber, Holsboer-Trachsler, Puhse, & Brand, 2016; Hallgren, Vancampfort, & Stubbs, 2016; Rosenbaum, Tiedemann, Ward, Curtis, & Sherrington, 2015; Schuch, Morres, Ekkekakis, Rosenbaum, & Stubbs, 2017; Stubbs, Rosenbaum, Vancampfort, Ward, & Schuch, 2016), and among patients with MS (Dalgas et al., 2015; Ensari et al., 2014; Razazian et al., 2016). Importantly, patients with MS are less physically active compared with the general population (Giesser, 2015; Latimer-Cheung et al., 2013; McDonnell, Smith, & Mackintosh, 2011; Motl, Dlugonski, Pilutti, Sandroff, & McAuley, 2012; Motl & Pilutti, 2012, 2016; Pilutti, Platta, Motl, & Latimer-Cheung, 2014; Ploughman et al., 2014; Waschbisch, Tallner, Pfeifer, & Maurer, 2009), though this difference in activity level is not present at disease onset (Sadeghi Bahmani et al., 2016).…”