Posted by linkadge on August 7, 2006, at 2:05:56 [reposted on August 8, 2006, at 11:07:13 | original URL]
In reply to Re: Exercise and depression » linkadge, posted by Maximus on August 6, 2006, at 19:26:27
>In spite my condition (sometimes very bad), i >have been coaching both a hockey team and a >Soccer team for over 20 years. Surprise? I have >seen many many people in sports. They tend to >trust me. So i have been aware of many intimate >things. Exercise has never been >sufficient/effective by itself to relieve >depression. Never.
You don't know that for sure. For instance, populations that exercise have statistically lower rates of depression. So, who's to say that many more of these people wouldn't have gone on to develop depression had they not been exercising? Who's to say that those who did develop depression may have developed it earlier or to a greater degree had they not been exercising?
It was clear to us kids the day our mom stopped exercising that she plunged much deeper into depression. Now, you're right, the exercise alone may have been insufficiant at certain times, but thats not to say that it didn't have a substantial effect, we all could see that.
Unfortunately, a well designed study is the most effective tool to acurately asess wheather or not a treatment modality has an effect.
In general, both drugs and >sports are needed.
>Now, that is the real world, not studies or >utopic hope.Unfortunately, studies are the only way we can accurately and comparitivly assess a treatment vs. no treatment. I am not saying that exercise will obliterate depression 100% of the time (drugs can't do that either).
Another possability is that the psychosocial stress of a competetive sport is conteracting an antidepressant effect. I wouldn't necessarily recomend this type of exercise for depression, unless it was entirely noncompeititive.
Linkadge
poster:linkadge
thread:674827
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/health/20060610/msgs/674857.html