Posted by dj on October 13, 2000, at 20:48:22
The final paragraph a key one...
October 10, 2000
Exercise Found Effective Against Depression
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
-------------------------------------------------------
WASHINGTON, Oct. 9 — Exercise works at least as well as a popular prescription drug in treating clinical depression and keeping the condition from returning, researchers say.Scientists at Duke University Medical Center tested exercise against the drug Zoloft and found the ability of either — or a combination of the two — to reduce or eliminate symptoms were about the same. But they found exercise seemed to do a better job of keeping symptoms from coming back after the depression lifted.
The findings suggest that a modest exercise program "is an effective, robust treatment for patients with major depression," said the report in the October issue of the journal Psychosomatic Medicine.
The findings go well beyond the idea that exercise fights the occasional blues. "It was not just that they had a bad day — or a bad several days," said Dr. James A. Blumenthal, the lead researcher.
The patients in this study and others in a continuing series of experiments at Duke had received diagnoses of major depressive disorders. Their loss of pleasure, and feelings of worthlessness and guilt, had to exist for at least two weeks.
The report followed earlier research in which 156 adult volunteers had taken part in a four-month comparison of exercise, Zoloft or a combination. The exercise primarily consisted of brisk walking, stationary bike riding or jogging for 30 minutes, plus a 10-minute warm-up and 5- minute cool down, three times a week.
After four months, patients in all groups had comparable improvements, the researchers said. About 60 percent of the exercisers had vastly improved or had no symptoms, compared with about 66 percent of the medication group and 69 percent of the combination group.
The new study was an effort to see if the benefits continued after the earlier study ended. Ten months from the beginning of the project, researchers checked 133 of their old research subjects who had stuck with the program.
Exercisers who had been in remission after four months were far less likely to see their depression return after 10 months, compared with people taking the drug or a combination therapy, the study found. Eight percent of exercisers saw symptoms come back, compared with 38 percent of those taking drugs and 31 percent getting both.
How exercise could create the benefit is not known. The once-popular idea that natural mood-enhancing chemicals called endorphins go up because of exercise is hard to prove because the experiment would require samples to be drawn from the central nervous system, Mr. Blumenthal said.
The usual method, taking endorphin levels from blood in the circulatory system, can be considered only a second-best way to find out, he said.
Zoloft, made by Pfizer, helps the body to regulate levels of another brain chemical, serotonin, which is also believed to affect mood.
The studies do not prove exercise relieves depression, in part because the exercisers worked out in a group, so group dynamics may have played a role, Dr. Blumenthal said.
The findings may not apply to all depression patients because the study worked with volunteers, Dr. Blumenthal said. Volunteers may be more likely to stick with exercise than patients working out under doctors' orders
poster:dj
thread:1040
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/social/20001011/msgs/1040.html