Influence of aerobic exercise on depression
Abstract
Forty-three depressed women were randomly assigned to either (a) an aerobic exercise treatment condition in which they participated in strenuous exercise, (b) a placebo treatment condition in which they practiced relaxation exercises, or (c) a no-treatment condition. Aerobic capacity was assessed before and after the 10-week treatment period. Self-reported depression was assessed before, during, and after the treatment period. The results indicated that subjects in the aerobic exercise condition evidenced reliably greater improvements in aerobic capacity than did the subjects in either of the other conditions (p less than .002 in both cases) and that the subjects in the aerobic exercise condition evidenced reliably greater decreases in depression than did subjects in the placebo condition (p = .05) or subjects in the no-treatment condition (p = .001). These results provide the first controlled evidence concerning the effects of strenuous exercise on depression.
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Data from two studies were unsuitable for statistical pooling.
“Of these 28 trials, data from two studies were unsuitable for statistical pooling (McCann 1984;Greist 1979).”
From Exercise for depression (2009) · cites this paper as McCann 1984
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- Authors
- McCann, I. L., & Holmes, D. S.
- Affiliations
- University of Kansas (US)
- ORCID
- Holmes, David S.
- Venue
- Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
- Published
- 1984
- Volume
- 46
- Issue
- 5
- Pages
- 1142-1147
- ISSN
- 0022-3514 (ISSN-L)
- 1939-1315
- OpenAlex
- W2028906360
- Cited by
- 297
- References
- 0
- Citations by year
- 2026: 2 · 2025: 2 · 2024: 8 · 2023: 2 · 2022: 2 · 2021: 3 · 2020: 7 · 2019: 2 · 2018: 3 · 2017: 6 · 2016: 6 · 2015: 13 · 2014: 4 · 2013: 9 · 2012: 4
- FWCI
- 6.70
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Journal of Personality and Social Psychology (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- 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
- aerobic exercise, depression, women, cardiorespiratory fitness, relaxation training, placebo effect, exercise therapy, self-reported depression
- MeSH terms
- Depression, Physical Exertion, Female, Humans, Physical Endurance
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