Cited by 132Physical Activity and HealthTreatment of Major DepressionAnxiety, Depression, Psychometrics, Treatment, Cognitive Processes

Depressed Adolescents Treated with Exercise (DATE): a pilot randomized controlled trial to test feasibility and establish preliminary effect sizes

Open access
Hughes, Carroll W., Barnes, Shauna, Barnes, Conrad, DeFina, Laura F., Nakonezny, Paul, Emslie, Graham J.·2013·Mental Health and Physical Activity

Abstract

The Depressed Adolescents Treated with Exercise (DATE) study evaluated a standardized aerobic exercise protocol to treat nonmedicated adolescents that met DSM-IV-TR criteria for major depressive disorder. From an initial screen of 90 individuals, 30 adolescents aged 12-18 years were randomized to either vigorous exercise (EXER) (>12 kg/kcal/week [KKW]) or a control stretching (STRETCH) activity (< 4 KKW) for 12 weeks. The primary outcome measure was the blinded clinician rating of the Children's Depression Rating Scale - Revised (CDRS-R) to assess depression severity and Actical (KKW) accelerometry 24hr/7days a week to assess energy expenditure and adherence. Follow-up evaluations occurred at weeks 26 and 52. The EXER group averaged 77% adherence and the STRETCH group 81% for meeting weekly target goals for the 12 week intervention based on weekly sessions completed and meeting KKW requirements. There was a significant increase in overall weekly KKW expenditures (p < .001) for both groups with the EXER group doubling the STRETCH group in weekly energy expenditure. Depressive symptoms were significantly reduced from baseline for both groups with the EXER group improving more rapidly than STRETCH after six weeks (p < .016) and nine weeks (p < .001). Both groups continued to improve such that there were no group differences after 12 weeks (p = .07). By week 12, the exercise group had a 100% response rate (86% remission), whereas the stretch group response rate was 67% (50% remission) (p = .02). Both groups had improvements in multiple areas of psychosocial functioning related to school and relationships with parents and peers. Anthropometry reflected decreased waist, hip and thigh measurements (p = .02), more so for females than males (p = .05), but there were no weight changes for either gender. The EXER group sustained 100% remission at week 26 and 52. The STRETCH group had 80% response and 70% remission rates at week 26 and by week 52 only one had not fully responded. The study provides support for the use of exercise as a non-medication intervention for adolescents with major depressive disorders when good adherence and energy expenditure (KKW) are achieved.

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1016/j.mhpa.2013.06.006

Cites

77 of 77 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Claims the paper makes

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

  • A small number of randomised controlled trials have investigated the efficacy of exercise for adolescents experiencing clinical levels of depression, while for adults, the available trial base is comparatively larger.

    “A small number of randomised controlled trials have investigated the efficacy of exercise for adolescents experiencing clinical levels of depression (e.g.Bailey 2018; Carter 2021; Hughes 2013; Philippot 2022), while for adults, the available trial base is comparatively larger (e.g.Cooney 2013;Dunn 2005;Hallgren 2015).”

    From Exercise for the treatment of anxiety in children and adolescents (2022) · cites this paper as Hughes 2013

Self-check

Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.

The self-check needs the paper’s full text.

Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

1 of the 78 references couldn’t be matched to a known paper.

Research works printed but not linked: 1

  1. Green SB Salkind NJ 2011 Using SPSS for Windows and Macintosh: Analyzing and Understandting Data 6th New York Prentice Hall

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Authors
Hughes, C. W., Barnes, S., Barnes, C., DeFina, L. F., Nakonezny, P., & Emslie, G. J.
Affiliations
  • The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center (US)
  • Cooper Institute (US)
Corresponding author
Hughes, Carroll W.
Venue
Mental Health and Physical Activity
Publisher
Elsevier BV
Published
2013-06
Volume
6
Issue
2
Pages
119-131
ISSN
1755-2966 (ISSN-L)
OpenAlex
W2062246459
Cited by
132
References
78
Citations by year
2026: 3 · 2025: 14 · 2024: 19 · 2023: 13 · 2022: 16 · 2021: 11 · 2020: 16 · 2019: 6 · 2018: 7 · 2017: 12 · 2016: 8 · 2015: 5 · 2014: 2
FWCI
3.48
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • Mental health and physical activity (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
Funders
National Institute of Mental Health (R34MH075762)
Topics
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Physiology › Physical Activity and Health
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Pharmacology › Treatment of Major Depression
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Anxiety, Depression, Psychometrics, Treatment, Cognitive Processes
Keywords
adolescent depression, exercise therapy, aerobic exercise, major depressive disorder, adolescents, non-pharmacological treatment, energy expenditure, exercise adherence, stretching, depression remission, psychosocial functioning, anthropometry, waist circumference, sex differences, feasibility, Children's Depression Rating Scale-Revised, accelerometry

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review