Radio Cadena Agramonte emisiora de Camagüey
Exercise is a safe and accessible option to help manage depression symptoms, according to a study released today, based on a review of 73 trials involving 5,000 adults.
Published in the Cochrane journal, the research demonstrates that exercise reduces symptoms of depression to a similar extent as psychotherapy. Compared to antidepressant medications, it also showed a similar effect, but with less evidence.
Depression is a leading cause of poor health and disability, affecting over 280 million people worldwide. Exercise is inexpensive, accessible, and provides other health benefits, making it an attractive option for patients and healthcare professionals, the authors emphasize.
The review was conducted by researchers from the University of Lancashire (UK), and examined 73 randomized controlled trials with nearly five thousand adults with depression, which compared exercise with either no treatment or control interventions, as well as with psychotherapies and antidepressant medications.
The results show that exercise can provide a "moderate benefit" in reducing depressive symptoms, compared to no treatment or a control intervention.
Compared to psychotherapy, exercise had a similar effect on depressive symptoms, according to scientific evidence from 10 trials.
Comparisons with antidepressants also point to a similar effect, but the evidence is limited. The long-term effects are unclear as few studies followed up with participants after treatment, they explained.
Our findings show that exercise appears to be a safe and accessible option to help manage symptoms of depression, said Andrew Clegg, lead author of the review.
This indicates that exercise works well for some people, but not for all, and it's important to find strategies that people are willing to follow and are able to maintain, he added. (Source: Prensa Latina)
