In a world where mental health issues such a depression and anxiety are becoming increasingly common, many are searching for effective, science-backed ways to feel better. Fortunately, there is a lot we can do that is within our control.
The prevalence of an average person having a bout of depression in their lifetime is 15.4%. Depression is characterized by symptoms including depressed mood, loss of interest and/or pleasure, poor concentration, and disturbed sleep or appetite. Depression is also associated with increased risk of suicide, all-cause mortality, cardiovascular disease, Alzheimer’s disease, social dysfunction, and major economic burden(1).
It is quite remarkable that out of approximately 55% of people with depression that receive specialist services, only about 32% receive adequate treatment(2).
The primary treatment of depression includes medication and psychotherapy. The efficacy of antidepressant medications increases with greater depression severity, but these medicines have minimal effectiveness for mild to moderate depressive symptoms. Additionally, negative side effects of antidepressant medications can also cause poor treatment adherence and low acceptability(3).
Psychotherapy is effective but can also be expensive and inaccessible. Therefore, it is imperative that alternative and enhancive treatments, such as exercise training, are needed for depression.
The antidepressant effects of exercise are well-supported and are highlighted by several biologically plausible mechanisms.
These mechanisms of action include enhanced regulation of the monoaminergic system and stress-response, reductions in inflammatory markers, and increased IGF-1(1).
Most exercise interventions on depressive symptoms have utilized aerobic exercise, but the promising effects of resistance exercise on depressive symptoms is not as well understood. Depressive disorders typically develop later in adulthood, however, the median age of onset has progressively declined, and approximately 37% of cases first develop before age 25(4).
In addition, general anxiety disorder typically develops in young adulthood and is highly comorbid with major depressive disorder, indicating that young adults with clinically meaningful anxiety may be at risk for depression. It is crucial to elucidate the effects of resistance exercise on mitigating depression and anxiety on this population.
A recent study examined the effects of eight weeks of resistance exercise training (twice weekly) compared to a control group on depressive symptoms among 55 young adults (male & female) with and without subclinical generalized anxiety disorder and major depressive disorder(1).
World Health Organization (WHO) and American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) based resistance training was an effective intervention for reducing
depressive symptoms among adults with limited resistance exercise training experience. The efficacy of resistance exercise training also appeared to be high among young adults with generalized anxiety disorder and major depressive disorder, supporting resistance training as a promising treatment for mild or subclinical depression among young adults(1).
Feasible, tolerable, and conservatively progressive resistance training that facilitates continuous engagement with resistance training activity may induce antidepressant benefits among young adults with limited resistance training experience.
Results demonstrated that the large-magnitude reduction in depressive symptoms from baseline to week eight is clinically meaningful.
This research was the third resistance training trial to report large magnitude reductions in depressive symptoms among young adults and the first to do so using ecologically valid resistance training designed in accordance with the
World Health Organization and American College of Sports Medicine.
The large-magnitude antidepressant effect found in this study supports resistance training as a promising treatment for mild or subclinical depression among young adults. This antidepressant effect is larger than those found for antidepressant medications, which have shown limited effectiveness for reducing mild-to-moderate depressive symptoms 5 and are unlikely to be used for preventing the onset of clinical depression.
Resistance training may be a promising effective intervention for preventing the onset of clinical depression among individuals lower on the depressive symptom severity spectrum, while concurrently improving aspects of health and physical function.
Eight weeks of ecologically valid resistance training resulted in clinically meaningful, large-magnitude reductions in depressive symptoms among an otherwise healthy sample of young adults.
There were also large antidepressant effects among participants with major depressive disorder and generalized anxiety disorder. There is a potential synergistic effect among those with generalized anxiety disorder, such that reductions in depressive and anxiety symptoms following resistance training augment each other.
There was also a large magnitude increase in strength which was not associated with changes in depressive symptoms.
A very striking and positive finding with this study is the large effect size given the low dose (only twice a week) of resistance training. Also, the antidepressant effect from resistance training is larger than antidepressant medications for reducing mild to moderate depressive symptoms.
By no means does this recommend that those suffering from depression should stop using their medications. I do think that this is quite remarkable and very promising as a potential clinical adjunct that providers can utilize in their therapeutic approach.
In addition to being an effective way to reduce the potential of depression, exercise also has many other protective benefits to your brain.
You can learn more about it
here.
References:
1. O'Sullivan D, Gordon BR, Lyons M, et al: Effects of resistance exercise training on depressive symptoms among young adults: A randomized controlled trial. Psychiatry Res 326:115322, 2023
2. Andrews G, Sanderson K, Corry J, et al: Using epidemiological data to model efficiency in reducing the burden of depression. The journal of mental health policy and economics 3:175-186, 2000
3. Wang S-M, Han C, Bahk W-M, et al: Addressing the side effects of contemporary antidepressant drugs: a comprehensive review. Chonnam medical journal 54:101-112, 2018
4. Solmi M, Radua J, Olivola M, et al: Age at onset of mental disorders worldwide: large-scale meta-analysis of 192 epidemiological studies. Molecular psychiatry 27:281-295, 2022
5. Fournier JC, DeRubeis RJ, Hollon SD, et al: Antidepressant drug effects and depression severity: a patient-level meta-analysis. Jama 303:47-53, 2010
