Jogging, yoga, strength training and even a simple stroll "all help beat the blues"

Jogging, yoga, strength training and even a simple stroll all help beat the blues, according to a new study. Researchers found such physical exercises ease depression with even low-intensity activities such as walking proving beneficial.

But the more vigorous the activity, the greater the benefits, according to the evidence review published by The BMJ. Researchers found that walking or jogging, yoga and strength training seem to be the most effective exercises to ease depression, either alone or alongside established treatments such as psychotherapy and drugs.

Study author Dr Michael Noetel said: "Even low-intensity activities such as walking or yoga are beneficial, but the results suggest that the more vigorous the activity, the greater the benefits are likely to be."

The research team stressed that confidence in many of the findings remains low and more high-quality studies are needed. But they say those forms of exercise “could be considered alongside psychotherapy and drugs as core treatments for depression.”

The World Health Organisation (WHO) estimates that more than 300 million people worldwide have depression. Exercise is often recommended alongside psychotherapy and drugs, but treatment guidelines and previous evidence reviews disagree on how to prescribe exercise to best treat depression.

The research team trawled databases looking for trials that compared exercise as a treatment for depression with established treatments. They found 218 relevant trials involving more than 14,000 participants with depression for analysis.

Each trial was assessed for bias and the type, intensity and frequency of each exercise intervention was recorded. Compared with active controls, large reductions in depression were found for dance and moderate reductions for walking or jogging, yoga, strength training, mixed aerobic exercises and tai chi or qigong.

Moderate, clinically meaningful effects were also found when exercise was combined with prescription drugs or aerobic exercise was combined with psychotherapy, suggesting that exercise could provide added benefit alongside these established treatments.

Dr Noetel, of the University of Queensland in Australia, said: "Although walking or jogging were effective for both men and women, strength training was more effective for women, and yoga or qigong was more effective for men.

"Yoga was also more effective among older adults, while strength training was more effective among younger people. And while light physical activity such as walking and yoga still provided clinically meaningful effects, the benefits were greater for vigorous exercise such as running and interval training.

"Exercise appeared equally effective for people with and without other health conditions and with different baseline levels of depression. Effects were also similar for individual and group exercise."

The researchers believe a combination of social interaction, mindfulness, and immersion in green spaces may help explain the positive effects. Dr Noetel said: “Our findings support the inclusion of exercise as part of clinical practice guidelines for depression, particularly vigorous intensity exercise."

He added: “Health systems may want to provide these treatments as alternatives or adjuvants to other established interventions, while also attenuating risks to physical health associated with depression.”

Professor Juan Ángel Bellón, of the University of Malaga in Spain, welcomed the findings. Prof Bellón, who wasn't involved in the research, said: “Primary care clinicians can now recommend exercise, psychotherapy, or antidepressants as standalone alternatives for adults with mild or moderate depression.”

But he pointed out that taking regular exercise can be challenging for people with depression. Prof Bellón urged health services and local and national administrations to “provide enough resources to make individualised and supervised exercise programmes accessible to the entire population.”