Exercise And Low-Level Mood Disorders

The effects of aerobic training on subclinical negative affect: A randomized controlled trial.
HEALTH PSYCHOLOGY

It makes sense that a lot of people are dealing with low-levels of depression these days, some for the first time. It also makes sense that aerobic exercise helps relieve some of this pain, and I find it useful to see specific details of how exercise can be used as medicine.

This is the first study I’ve seen that tracks the psychological benefits of exercise in healthy adults who don’t exercise, and then compares the gains with a period of deconditioning. You read that right–this study had people moving around for weeks, feeling great, only to then stop moving altogether in the name of science. Researchers wanted to see how movement fluctuation affects people with low levels of depression, anxiety, hostility and anger.

To really solidify their findings, researchers then compared mood changes with a control group who didn’t exercise at all.

After three months of movement, participant’s overall scores on the BDI depression scale fell by about 39%. The control group’s depression scores barely changed. Levels of hostility also dropped significantly in the exercise group, but declines in anxiety and anger were subtle. This might be explained by an already low baseline so their anxiety couldn’t get much lower.

Another key finding is that these benefits persisted after 4 weeks post-training. They were clearly falling back toward baseline numbers, but this still shows how strong of an effect that movement can have.

Takeaway
Exercise has clear benefits for mood, even if we aren’t severely depressed or anxious. Three months of aerobic exercise (4 workouts per week) lowered depression and hostility levels in healthy but sedentary adults.

If this sounds like a massive undertaking simply begin with a walk today. This experiment had participants slowly increasing their heart rate as the weeks progressed, which increased their endurance and decreased their depression. Try to walk a little faster tomorrow, or add some elevation, or add a backpack full of soup cans.