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One study's perspective - Exercise beats drug in f

Posted by dj on September 23, 2000, at 16:49:20

Exercise beats drug in fighting depression


Margaret Munro
National Post

The Olympic athletes -- and lesser mortals who engage in brisk exercise -- have more than medals lifting their spirits, judging by a new study.

The study, published in the journal Psychosomatic Medicine today, confirms that exercise is a potent antidepressant, even better it seems than a widely used medication.

The 156 Americans who participated in the study had been diagnosed with major depression. They were given one of three treatments: regular physical workouts, the antidepressant drug Zoloft or a combination of the two.

The exercising group worked out, at up to 85% of their maximum heart rate, on a treadmill or stationary bicycle for half an hour three times a week. The combination group followed this exercise regimen and also took Zoloft.

After 16 weeks, the three groups had similar results. They all had significantly lower rates of depression, suggesting that exercise was as potent as Zoloft.

After an additional six months, the exercising patients were much less likely to have relapsed. Only 8% of patients in the exercise group saw their depression return, compared to 38% of the drug-only group and 31% of the exercise-plus-drug group.

"The important conclusion is that the effectiveness of exercise seems to persist over time, and that patients who respond well to exercise and maintain their exercise have a much smaller risk of relapsing," said James Blumenthal, the lead researcher, who is a psychologist at Duke University Medical Center in North Carolina.

The results, he says, "indicate that a modest exercise program is an effective and robust treatment for patients with major depression. And if these motivated patients continue with their exercise, they have a much better chance of not seeing their depression return."

The researchers say they were surprised that the patients who exercised responded better than the folks who coupled medication with exercise. "We had assumed that exercise and medication together would have had an additive effect, but this turned out not to be the case," says Blumenthal.

The reason may be that the exercising patients take an active role in trying to get better. "Simply taking a pill is very passive," says Blumenthal. "Patients who exercised may have felt a greater sense of mastery over their condition and gained a greater sense of accomplishment."

And once patients start feeling better, they tend to exercise more, which makes them feel even better, Blumenthal said.

The researchers do not see exercise as a panacea that will lift everyone's depression. The study, they note, did not include patients who were acutely suicidal or suffered from "psychotic" depression.

Also the study may have been slightly biased because patients who volunteered for the study were motivated to get better and were interested in exercise.

Researchers used the antidepressant sertraline, which is sold under the trade name Zoloft, and is one of the most commonly used antidepressants on the market.

Because up to one-third of depressed patients may not respond to drug therapy and many people complain of side effects, Blumenthal says it is important to find other approaches for treating depression.

Chemical imbalances in the brain are known to cause depression, but the researchers say in older people it can also be triggered by abnormalities in blood vessels in the brain.

To get a better read on how exercise helps lifts the demons of depression, Blumenthal and his colleagues plan a new study with some subjects exercising at home. This may determine how much of the benefit was derived from exercise and how much came from the supportive atmosphere at the exercise centre.

> > > > > > >

Now if I could only get out of this chair...



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