So, many new research articles, so little time to read each one... That is my complaint each month that I try to sit down and keep on top of developments in the world of physiotherapy and exercise. This month a new systematic review has been published highlighting the effects of aerobic exercise on depression. Now I can imagine that there may well be some people reading this and saying, hold on, depression is something that you go to the doctor about and doesn’t have anything to do with physiotherapists? Well, it is certainly true that if you or somebody you know is suffering from depression you should certainly seek a medical opinion but there is a growing body of evidence that is suggesting that exercise can help with depression and mood and exercise most certainly is in the realm of physiotherapists. Also depression is a common problem in the UK affecting approximately 10% of adults and certainly as physiotherapists seeing a large number of patients with mobility problems, depression is a common complaint.

So, anyway what does the review say? Firstly if you want to read it in more detail follow this link here. Well, the review looked at the effects of exercise compared with the use of anti-depressant medication on patients who had already been diagnosed with clinical depression and included a total of 11 trials with 455 patients. Importantly this review only included people who already had a clinical diagnosis of depression and were coming from mental health services and it specifically only included trials were patients were asked to do aerobic exercises (for example trials in which they did stretching were excluded).  

The review found that exercise had a moderate to large effect on reduction in depression scores in these patients and lends further support to the growing body of evidence that exercise can be an effective treatment for depression and low mood. Personally, I think this is fantastic news, it shows that there are effective treatments for difficult conditions like depression that do not involve taking large volumes of medication and also doesn’t involve lots of medical intervention. I am a huge believer in people being given the tools and information to help themselves and this review shows that given help and support, to find an appropriate exercise regime, patients can experience improvements in their mood and depression scores which can only be good news!!

To me it also underlines the importance of our role as physiotherapists. Keeping people fit and mobile makes a huge difference not just to patients’ physical strength but also to their quality of life and mood. This is something we see every day in practice but it is vital that we continue to have more evidence that supports this.

Okay, I hope you have found this physiotherapy related blog interesting. Just to remind anyone reading: we are a home visit physiotherapy service based in Lichfield and serving surrounding areas such as Sutton Coldfield, Tamworth, Rugeley, Walsall and Cannock.