There's little doubt that exercise can help persons with major depressive illness improve their mood. Even an hour of exercise every week can help to lower the risk of subsequent episodes.
Surprisingly, less is known regarding the more immediate effects of exercise on certain emotional and mental features in people with depression, both during and immediately after a workout.
"A lot of previous research on the effects of exercise on mental health, in general, have used very broad measures of wellbeing," says LOWA State University kinesiologist Jacob Meyer
"What we were interested in, specifically, is: how does acute exercise - that, is, one session of exercise in a day – influence the primary symptoms of depression."
Chronic depression is characterized by a number of mental changes that are more than just a gloomy mood. The sheer loss of enjoyment and pleasure that comes with depressive episodes — a symptom known as ANHEDONIA – is a symptom that many people experience.
Then there's the connection between the disease and poor cognitive processes, such as memory loss and processing speed, which may benefit from exercise as well.
Meyer and colleagues assessed multiple test scores of 30 participants before, during, and after either a fairly strenuous half-hour cycling session or a tranquil rest session to add detail to our understanding of how a workout effects changes in both mood and mental skills.
A questionnaire was used to assess current mood and feelings, as well as a scale to quantify ANHEDONIA and multiple cognitive measures, including a stroop color and word test.
The evaluations were combined to get a clearer picture of how a person's mental state changes during an exercise session when they are suffering from depression.
Participants' moods improved about halfway through the activity, and this improvement lasted for at least 75 minutes after the workout concluded.
ANHEDONIA had also subsided, however it was beginning to return 75 minutes after the workout. However, it was still a positive result as compared to those who had peacefully rested.
The differences in cognitive ability were maybe even more surprising. The results in this sample were mixed, in contrast to prior findings on healthy people, which projected overall improved reaction times.
Participants' stroop test responses were somewhat faster during exercise. However, this fell between 25 and 50 minutes after they stopped exercising, and they became slower than those who hadn't.
It's unclear why this is, or whether it has anything to do with other major depressive disorder symptoms.
The fact that physical activity immediately improves mood and general enjoyment helps to construct a case for persons with depression to exercise more.
However, it's possible that it's not so straightforward. Because depression saps motivation, even the excitement of getting out of the house and moving might not be enough to motivate a habit change.
Still, knowing there's a window of at least an hour where the dark cloud lifts could help plan out the day a little better for those who manage to take the crucial step.
"What's cool is that these benefits to sad mood state and anhedonia may continue longer than 75 minutes," Meyer explains.
"We would need to do a longer study to determine when they start to wane, but the results suggest a window of time post-exercise when it may be easier or more effective for someone with depression to do something psychologically or cognitively demanding."
You must be logged in to post a comment.