Exercise is beneficial adjunctive treatment in depression

BMJ 1997;315:1542-1543 (6 December)

Letters

Exercise is beneficial adjunctive treatment in depression

Editor–Hale's article on depression in the ABC of MentalHealth was presumably aimed at updating and informing peopleon the current thinking and treatments of depression.¹ We aredisappointed that it did not mention the use of exercise asan adjunctive treatment of depression.

There is now a growing body of evidence both from meta-analysisand from randomised control trials² to show that exercise is beneficial inmild to moderate depression and may also be of use in more chronicand severe depression.³ In addition, people with mental illnessexercise less than the general population,⁴ so exercise mayhave a protective function. Exercise also has relatively fewadverse effects compared with many drug treatments. Patientsoften say that they do not want drug treatment, and exerciseis a reasonable alternative. It is also cost effective sinceit is relatively cheap to provide.