“Exercise provides an option for people experiencing depressive symptoms, along with pharmacological and psychological treatments, which should be offered to people to allow them to choose the best option in consultation with their health professional,” says the study’s lead author, Andrew Clegg, PhD, a professor of health services research at the University of Lancashire in England.
How Exercise Compares With Other Depression Treatments
The latest study is an update of a systematic review originally published in 2008 and first updated in 2013. Since then, Dr. Clegg says, additional evidence has confirmed the benefits of exercise for people living with depression.
“It’s important to update reviews when new studies are published to ensure people are aware of the latest evidence to make their decisions about healthcare,” he says.
In the latest review, researchers identified 73 randomized controlled trials, involving nearly 5,000 participants diagnosed with depression, that were published up to November 2023. The studies assessed the effectiveness of exercise for treating depression, compared with no treatment, talk therapies, and antidepressant medications.
The analysis found that exercise can have a moderate benefit in reducing depressive symptoms compared with no treatment. Physical activity had a similar effect on depression symptoms compared with therapy and antidepressants.
The review found that light and moderate-intensity exercise may be more beneficial than vigorous exercise, Clegg says. It also found that, unlike antidepressants, exercise for depression rarely led to unpleasant side effects.
“The study adds synthesis of multiple studies and consolidates the main impact of depression treatment with exercise,” says clinical neuropsychologist Scott Langenecker, PhD, a professor and vice chair of research in the department of psychiatry and behavioral health at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center in Columbus.
This instills confidence in the benefits of exercise for patients with depression, says Dr. Langenecker, who was not involved with the research.
The Study Has Some Limitations
Many of the studies included in the review only assessed the effects of exercise over a short period of time, making the long-term impact of exercise on depression symptoms unclear, the researchers noted.
The authors noted that many of the studies included a small number of participants and had a high risk of bias based on their research methods.
The authors also observed that evidence comparing exercise and antidepressants head-to-head was limited.
Can Exercise Alone Treat Depression?
Should people with depression forgo other treatments and focus exclusively on physical activity? “Definitely not,” Langenecker says. Exercise, along with lifestyle tweaks like improving diet and sleep habits, can all benefit people with depression, as can therapy and antidepressants, he explains.
Treatment for depression should be individualized and can include all of these components.
“A big takeaway I got from this study is a ‘both/and’ landing spot about differences in exercise versus therapy or antidepressants in reducing depression symptoms,” says Derek Bowers, a licensed therapist marriage and family therapist with the telehealth provider PlushCare. Giving up one of these strategies or relying too much on one tactic over the others may mean “missing the boat,” he says.
Both Langenecker and Bowers recommend physical activity for their patients with depression.
“Most frontline treatments for depression that include behavioral therapy incorporate exercise,” Langenecker says.
The latest study gives patients options to discuss with their healthcare provider, Clegg says. “It could be that people decide to change their form of treatment or combine different treatment options. It is a personal choice.”
What Type of Exercise Is Best for Depression?
The new study suggests that light- to moderate-intensity physical activity may be most beneficial, Clegg says. But it didn’t identify specific types of exercise that were more or less beneficial for depression.
“To me, this depends on the specific individual and what they are able to do,” Bowers says. “Life routines, time management and availability, physical abilities, and weather can all impact someone’s ability to incorporate fitness.”
What’s most important, Clegg says, is to choose exercises that you find enjoyable.
