Posted by Neal on June 1, 2001, at 0:54:10
This program was recently run on the Australian Broadcast Network.
Depression and exercise
Thursday, 15 March 2001Everyone knows that an active life is a healthy choice, but new research from Duke University in North Carolina shows that exercising three times a week can be just as effective as drug therapy when it comes to relieving the symptoms of major depression. (full transcript...)
Narration: To see how Carol attacks life now you’d never guess she’s battled deep depression for 40 years. After retiring early and moving to a quiet neighbourhood in North Carolina she almost lost the will to live.Carol Reach: I was really at a point in my depression where I felt is it really worth going on anymore. So I was in a very bad state really. I was thinking suicide; I was thinking hospital; I didn’t know; I didn’t have the guts to kill myself and yet I didn’t have the energy or the desire to live.
Narration: What enabled Carol to pull out of that deep spin was her participation in an intriguing research project at nearby Duke University.
Carol was one of 156 older people who signed on to a study investigating the effects of exercise on major depression. It’s by no means the first such study but this one pitted exercise against the effects of powerful anti-depressant drugs.Blumenthal: So we wanted to do a controlled study in which patients were assigned at random to different treatment groups. So we had one group that exercised, one group that took medication and a third group that did a combination….treated for four months and then looked at the differences, changes in depression.
Narration: Carol was assigned to the group that had a supervised program of exercises 3 days a week plus a course of the antidepressant drug, Zoloft. She had previously experienced problems with medication.
Carol Reach: For me it was exercise and the drug and I went ‘Oh no, no, no’. So, I went on a very, very low drug you know, low dosage of the drug and I did the exercise and I was thrilled with the exercise and after I while I had to get off the drug but the exercise was wonderful.
Narration: After 16 weeks all three groups showed fewer symptoms of depression. Of those who simply exercised around 60% felt better. Surprisingly that’s about the same percentage as for the people on medication.
Dr James Blumenthal: The other thing that was a surprise was we thought that the combination group would be added benefit; if exercise was good and medication was good then together it would be a dynamite combination. That turned out not to be the case. There wasn’t an additive effect.
Carol Reach: When I finished in that, I was enrolled in classes. I was meeting people. I was out in the world. I was doing all kinds of things. The best time in my life has been since I did that study.
Narration: Even though the formal part of the study was now complete the researchers decided to follow the progress of the participants as they resumed their normal lives. Some people went back to their old habits. Others like Carol kept on exercising.
Six months down the track some interesting facts emerged. It was found that people who had benefited from the original exercise group and now continued an active lifestyle were much less likely to get depressed again than people on medication.
All of this suggests that while antidepressants offer some people more immediate relief, in the long term regular exercise may be an important alternative therapy. Why this should be so no one yet knows but Jim Blumenthal can see the attraction.Dr James Blumenthal: I think that one of the other appeals of exercising is that people are really taking an active role in their treatment. I think this appeals to a lot of people. Taking a pill is a very passive kind of activity. Exercising obviously requires more active participation. And I think having a sense of control over what you’re doing and feeling that sense of accomplishment I think are important.
Narration: As for Carol, she is convinced that the daily walks have brought her peace for the first time in her life.
Carol Reach: It’s not that I don’t get depressed, but the depression doesn’t rule me. There’s something I can do about it.
poster:Neal
thread:64981
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20010530/msgs/64981.html