Experts say exercise can help fight depression and boost the effects of therapy

By Stephen Beech via SWNS

Exercise not only reduces the symptoms of depression but can also boost the effects of therapy, according to new research.

Two studies found that exercising for just half-an-hour may cut symptoms for at least 75 minutes post-workout, as well as amplifying the benefits of therapy.

Study lead author Professor Jacob Meyer, of Iowa State University , said: “A lot of previous research on the effects of exercise on mental health, in general, have used very broad measures of well-being.

"What we were interested in, specifically, is: how does acute exercise - that is, one session of exercise in a day – influence the primary symptoms of depression."

For the first study, researchers recruited 30 adults who were experiencing major depressive episodes.

The participants filled out electronic surveys immediately before, half-way-through and after a 30-minute session of either moderate-intensity cycling or sitting, and then 25-, 50- and 75-minutes post-workout.

Those who cycled during the first lab visit came back a week later to run through the experiment again with 30-minutes of sitting, and vice versa. Each survey included standard questions and scales used to measure symptoms of depression and several cognitive tasks.

The researchers then used the survey data to track any changes in three characteristics of major depressive disorder: depressed mood state, for example, sad, discouraged, gloomy; anhedonia - difficulty experiencing pleasure from activities previously enjoyed; and decreased cognitive function, such as difficulty thinking, or juggling multiple pieces of information at once.

During the cycling experiment, participants’ depressed mood state improved over the 30 minutes of exercise and consistently up to 75 minutes afterward.

The improvement to anhedonia started to drop off at 75 minutes post-exercise, but still was better than the participants’ levels of anhedonia in the group that did not exercise.

Prof Meyer said: “The cool thing is these benefits to depressed mood state and anhedonia could last beyond 75 minutes.

"We would need to do a longer study to determine when they start to wane, but the results suggest a window of time post-exercise when it may be easier or more effective for someone with depression to do something psychologically or cognitively demanding."

He said that could include giving a presentation, taking a test – or going to therapy.

Prof Meyer and his research team also conducted a separate pilot study.

Half of the 10 participants exercised on their own - cycling, jogging or walking - for 30 minutes at a pace they considered moderate intensity, which the researchers also verified with Fitbit data.

They then into an hour of virtual, cognitive behaviour therapy each week. The other participants simply continued in their day-to-day activities prior to their therapy sessions.

At the end of the eight-week intervention programme, participants in both groups showed improvements, but those who exercised before talking with a therapist had more pronounced reductions in symptoms of depression.

The researchers says the results indicate exercise could "help amplify" the benefits of therapy for adults with depression.

Prof Meyer said: “With such a small group, we did not perform formal statistical testing, but the results are promising."

He added: “Overall, the pilot study showed people were interested and would stick with the combined approach, and that exercise seemed to have some effects on depression and a couple of the mechanisms of therapy.”

Prof Meyer explained that one of those mechanisms relates to the relationship between a client and therapist. He said If someone feels a connection with their therapist, there’s a higher chance they’ll continue going to therapy and the sessions likely will have greater impact.

He said: "In the pilot study, participants who exercised before the cognitive behaviour therapy session reported a quicker and stronger connection with their therapists."

The researchers said the findings, published in the journal Psychology of Sport and Exercise, suggest exercise may be priming or “fertilising” the brain to engage with more emotionally challenging work that can happen during therapy.