Depression in Somatic Disorders: Is There a Beneficial Effect of Exercise?
Open accessAbstract
Background: The beneficial effects of exercise training on depressive symptoms are well-established. In the past years, more research attention has been drawn to the specific effects of exercise training on depressive symptoms in somatically ill patients. This reviews aims at providing a comprehensive overview of the current findings and evidence of exercise interventions in somatic disorders to improve depressive symptoms. Methods: We systematically searched PubMed and Cochrane databases and extracted meta-analyses from somatically ill patients that underwent exercise interventions and provided information about the outcome of depressive symptoms. Results: Of the 4123 detected publications, 39 were selected for final analysis. Various diseases were included (breast-cancer, prostate cancer and mixed-cancer, cardiovascular disease, coronary heart disease, hemodialysis, fibromyalgia syndrome, acute leukemia, other haematological malignancies, heart failure, HIV, multiple sclerosis, mixed neurological disorders, Parkinson disease, stroke, ankylosing spondylitis, traumatic brain injury, lupus erythematodes). Most meta-analyses (33/39) found beneficial effects on depressive symptoms, but quality of the included studies as well as duration, intensity, frequency and type of exercise varied widely. Conclusion: Exercise training has the potential to improve depressive symptoms in patients with somatic disorders. For specific training recommendations, more high quality studies with structured exercise programs and better comparability are needed.
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There is usually a positive dose-response relationship between exercise duration/frequency and depressive symptoms improvement.
“Usually, there is a positive dose–response relationships between exercise duration/frequency and depressive symptoms improvement [103].”
From Systematic review and meta-analysis of the effects of exercise on depression in adolescents (2022) · cites this paper as [103]
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Systematic review and meta-analysis of the effects of exercise on depression in adolescents
Wang, X., Cai, Z.-D., Jiang, W.-T., Fang, Y.-Y., Sun, W.-X., & Wang, X. (2022) · Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Mental Health · doi:10.1186/s13034-022-00453-2 · Cited by 169 · see citing works
“Usually, there is a positive dose–response relationships between exercise duration/frequency and depressive symptoms improvement [103].”
Background
- Authors
- Roeh, A., Kirchner, S. K., Malchow, B., Maurus, I., Schmitt, A., Falkai, P., & Hasan, A.
- Affiliations
- Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München (DE)
- Jena University Hospital (DE)
- Universidade de São Paulo (BR)
- Corresponding author
- Roeh, Astrid
- Venue
- Frontiers in Psychiatry
- Publisher
- Frontiers Media SA
- Published
- 2019-03-20
- Volume
- 10
- Pages
- 141-141
- ISSN
- 1664-0640 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC6435577
- OpenAlex
- W2924112859
- Cited by
- 40
- References
- 65
- Citations by year
- 2026: 2 · 2025: 5 · 2024: 14 · 2023: 7 · 2022: 3 · 2021: 2 · 2020: 6 · 2019: 1
- FWCI
- 0.35
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Frontiers in Psychiatry (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- Open access LMU (Ludwid Maxmilian's Universitat Munchen) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- MPG.PuRe (Max Planck Society) (submittedVersion)
- OPUS (Augsburg University) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Physiology › Physical Activity and Health
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Oncology › Cancer survivorship and care
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Cardiology and Cardiovascular Medicine › Cardiac Health and Mental Health
- Keywords
- exercise training, depressive symptoms, somatic diseases, exercise intervention, cancer patients, cardiovascular disease, fibromyalgia, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson's disease, stroke, chronic pain, exercise intensity and frequency
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