Moderate physical exercise and quality of life in patients with treatment-resistant major depressive disorder

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

“…In summary, these findings suggest that far less exercise is needed to decrease depressive symptoms than typically suggested in internationally accepted physical activity recommendations 10,11. Further, this pattern of results mirrors the findings of Mota-Pereira et al2 among treatment-resistant patients with major depressive disorders: while after 12 weeks, none of the 10 patients in the control condition showed any improvement (but also no aggravation), of the 19 patients in the walking group, 10 (52.6%) remained in a state of depression, 4 patients (21%) were responders and 5 (26.3%) were fully remitted. Or simply put, in the walking group, improvements were observed in half of the patients with treatment-resistant major depression.…”

“…Third, we strongly believe that the promotion of physically active lifestyles in people with psychiatric disorders needs professional stimulation and supervision, along with the training of practical behavioral techniques that facilitate exercise adherence, as impressively shown by Mota-Pereira et al in patients with treatment-resistant disorders,2 by Chalder et al in people diagnosed with an episode of depression6 and by many other researchers with other patient groups 27–35…”

“…They also shared our view that behavior skill training may be a promising avenue to increase exercise adherence. In this respect, Mota-Pereira et al2 showed that regular and moderately intensive walking improved symptoms of depression in treatment-resistant patients with major depressive disorders. Specifically, they employed both supervised and non-supervised techniques.…”

“…In particular, they emphasized that the effectiveness of behavioral skill training has not yet been tested in patients with psychiatric disorders and that even small doses of physical activity can lead to lasting reductions in depressive symptoms among patients with mild-to-moderate depression. Here, again, we refer to the seminal work of Mota-Pereira et al2 Moreover, Chalder et al6 recently showed, in a study with 361 participants who had consulted their general practitioner with symptoms of depression, that a protocol of three face-to-face sessions and 10 telephone calls with a trained physical activity facilitator (over an 8-month period) was associated with increased physical activity levels at the 4-month follow-up (adjusted odds ratio: 2.27, P <0.01). Nevertheless, given that behavior skill training might be a special challenge in psychiatric care due to unfavorable cognitive-emotional processes experienced by these patients (eg, hopelessness, pessimism, lack of motivation), we believe that more well-controlled intervention studies are needed to examine whether a generalization to psychiatric populations is possible or whether alternative approaches must be taken into consideration.…”

Cardiorespiratory fitness, but not physical activity, is associated with academic achievement in children and adolescents

“…In fact, several studies suggest that PA decreases the risk of obesity and some chronic diseases, is related to lower body mass index (BMI) (Ruiz et al, 2011), improves general physical fitness and selfesteem and reduces stress and anxiety (Mota-Pereira et al, 2011;Twisk, 2001b). In addition, there is evidence that PA in childhood and adolescence is related to cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF) (Santos et al, 2014).…”