Effectiveness of light and hard aerobic exercise for the treatment of depressive patients in a reinstatement support program

Abstract

We have developed an integrated reinstatement support program for depression patients in remission. We administered a face-to-face retrospective questionnaire about the immediate effect of a town walk (at a tempo of 120 steps/min) to 10 participants. As an effect just after the walking, three elements of mental activity (mood, thought, and drive/motivation) were significantly improved (Wilcoxon signed rank test, respectively p＝0.008, 0.018, and 0.012). The improvement in mood was big and was significantly higher than the improvement in thought (p＝0.028).

For 7 depressive patients, we carried out a program that was mainly hard aerobic exercise therapy (badminton) for 3 days per week for a month. HAM-D₁₇ scores at one month (T₁) significantly decreased from baseline (T₀) (Wilcoxon signed rank test p＝0.018, average; T₀＝14.57, T₁＝7.42 ). BDI-II scores at T₁ significantly decreased from T₀ ( Wilcoxon signed rank test p＝0.028, average; T₀＝22.85, T₁＝15.42 ).

It was suggested that both the light and hard aerobic exercise had remedial effects for the depressive state.