Scientists have learned about the ability of sports to reduce symptoms of depression

The authors of the updated Cochrane review found that regular physical activity can reduce symptoms of depression almost as effectively as psychotherapy. When comparing exercise with antidepressants, the researchers also recorded a comparable effect, but the level of reliability of the data was lower. This was reported by Science Daily magazine.

Depression remains one of the key global health problems, affecting more than 280 million people worldwide at the same time. This disease is one of the leading causes of disability. Against this background, physical activity stands out as an affordable and inexpensive way of helping, which simultaneously improves physical health, which makes it attractive to both patients and doctors.

The review was prepared by researchers at the University of Lancashire and is based on data from 73 randomized clinical trials involving almost 5,000 adults with diagnosed depression. These studies compared the effects of exercise with the absence of treatment, as well as with psychotherapy and drug treatment.

Overall, the results showed that physical activity led to a moderate reduction in depressive symptoms compared with no treatment. When compared with psychotherapy, sport showed comparable improvements — this conclusion is based on data of an average degree of reliability from 10 studies.

The analysis compared with antidepressants indicated a similar effect, but the evidence base here was limited and assessed as low reliability. However, few studies have tracked the condition of participants after completion of treatment, so the long-term effects remain unclear.

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Side effects were rarely reported. Participants in physical activity programs sometimes reported muscle or joint injuries, while people taking antidepressants experienced typical drug reactions such as fatigue and gastrointestinal problems.

"Our results show that exercise appears to be a safe and affordable option for relieving symptoms of depression. This suggests that exercise is good for some people, but not for everyone, and it is important to find approaches that people are willing and able to support, " said the lead author of the review, Professor Andrew Clegg.

The authors also found that light and moderate intensity gives the best effect. The most pronounced improvement in symptoms was observed in those who completed from 13 to 36 training sessions. However, no specific type of exercise has demonstrated a clear advantage. However, programs combining different types of activity and strength training proved to be more effective compared to aerobic exercises alone.

Despite the fact that 35 new studies were included in the updated review, the main conclusions remained virtually unchanged. Clegg stressed that physical activity can help people with depression, but more extensive and high-quality research is needed to understand which exercises are suitable for different groups of patients and how stable their effect is.

On December 8, Medical Xpress magazine reported an increased risk of epilepsy in depression. At the same time, it was clarified that studies do not claim that depression causes the disease. Experts emphasized that people with diagnosed depression and epilepsy have psychiatric problems such as anxiety, sleep disorders, psychosis and bipolar affective disorder.

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