Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
Abstract
Keywords:
Physical activity, Lifestyle modifications and physical activity have shown major evidence in reduc-
Exercise, ing the burden and prevalence of depression. There is still a debate about the effect
Prevention,
Management, of physical activity on depression prevention. This study aimed at reviewing the
Depression. effect of physical activity on prevention of depression. This review included 40
Received Jul 14, studies out of 2300 published studies available on initial search during the last
Revised Aug 1, 10 years. These studies showed that exercise is a better strategy for management
Published Aug 2, 2018 of depression and its benefits are not limited to decreasing the depressive symp-
toms but also to improve the quality of life, managing and preventing depression
*Corresponding author:
hajar.almomen@hotmail.com
1. Introduction
Depression and anxiety are worldwide disorders vagal tone which lead to physiological changes in-
that could result in high economic burden on health cluding the resting bradycardia. The stimulation of
authorities and individuals as well (Collaborators, autonomic nervous system was used for treatment of
2017). The effective treatment of depression is cost depression (Hill et al., 2006; Krokstad et al., 2013).
effective and need various strategies which would There is still a debate about the effect of phys-
impact the quality of life of individuals (Chisholm ical activity on depression prevention, however
et al., 2016). There are no distinct etiological fac- the evidenced studies and the trend of many agen-
tors for depression but different factors may con- cies were toward benefiting from exercise and
tribute to progression of depression including physical activity decrease the depression rates.
economic status, relationships, work load, family This review study aimed at examining the effect
stress and academic achievement (Lee et al., 2013). of physical activity on prevention of depression.
Lifestyle and physical activity have shown ma-
jor evidence in reducing the burden and prevalence 2. Information sources and search strat-
of depression (Cleare et al., 2015). Many prospec- egy
tive studies also showed that there is a significant The eligibility criteria and data collection were done
association between depression and physical inac- according to a literature search in the systemic re-
tivity and this could be postulated to that the exer- view conducted in 2013 (Mammen and Faulkner,
cise could result in a number of biological changes 2013). The search items were ‘effect of physical
that affect the mental health of individuals (Carek activities on prevention of depression.’ This review
et al., 2011; Freitas et al., 2014; Rebar et al., 2015). included 40 studies out of 2300 published studies
Physical activity could alter the activity of the available on initial search during the last 10 years.
nervous system and increase the parasympathetic
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AlMomen 2018, AJMS 1(1): 1-6. DOI:10.5455/ajms.2
3. Results and discussion al., 2010; Mikkelsen et al., 2010; Wang et al., 2011).
3.1. Definition of physical activity Increasing the rate of physical activity could reduce
The definition of physical activity is the movement of the future risks of depression and the more physi-
the body that could produce energy coming from the cal activity level, the more preventive outcomes
contraction of skeletal muscles. Physical activities and better response to cognitive behavior therapy
are done for many purposes and could be related to (Gudmundsson et al., 2015; Hallgren et al., 2015).
having leisure time or work related activities (Brooks Physical activity during major depressive disorder
and Magnusson, 2007). Exercise and physical ac- could be difficult as those patients are usually inactive
tivity were also defined as repetitive and structured when compared with other suffering from moderate
as well as planned exercise that could improve the depression (Helgadottir et al., 2015; Wielopolski et
physical fitness and prevent obesity (Spencer et al., al., 2015). Variations are found between different
2015). Physical activity was associated with leisure populations from different cultures, ages and genders
time in many studies and reduction of the depressive thus about 2 and half hours of physical exercise per
symptoms among women as well as among older week could be effective for prevention of depression
subjects (Joshi et al., 2016; Teychenne et al., 2017). (Correia and Ravasco, 2014; Schuch et al., 2015).
3.2. Physical activity and depression 3.3. Potential neurobiological mechanisms as-
Depression and physical activity have a bidirection- sociated with exercise
al relationship as each one impacts the other. Many Many hypotheses were postulated to explain the
prospective cross sectional studies showed that effect of exercise on depression. These hypotheses
healthy subjects with lower activity levels are more include increasing the hormonal levels of serotonin,
susceptible to depression than others who regularly epinephrine and dopamine which could increase
practice exercise. This relationship was evidenced the levels of neurogenesis markers, reduce the oxi-
in many studies around the world. Brazilians who dative and pro-inflammatory markers with increas-
don’t regularly practice exercise or have low lev- ing the antioxidants thus change the activity of the
els of physical activity have increased symptoms cerebral cortex (Schuch et al., 2016). The chemical
of depression (De Mello et al., 2013). Also, in Ko- imbalance between the brain and neurotransmitters
rea, depressive symptoms are doubled among inac- could result in depression thus exercise could pro-
tive subjects than active population (Kremer et al., mote the response on the levels of neurotransmit-
2014). Among children with high levels of physical ters (Schuch et al., 2016; Szuhany et al., 2015). It
activity, the depressive symptoms were decreased also increases the level of antioxidants as well as
by 38% than physically inactive subjects (Kremer et decreases the inflammatory markers which impair
al., 2014). In addition, the levels of developing de- the activity of the brain, thereby preventing and
pression among older subjects were increased (83%) managing depression (Miller and Raison, 2016).
among population with lower activity levels in com-
parison with active equivalents (Paulo et al., 2016). 3.4. Factors influencing physical activity
Many studies summarized that physical activity is among depressive subjects
inversely correlated with the prevalence, prevention Many factors could influence the physical activity
and treatment of depression (Korczak et al., 2017; among depressive patients including low energy, no
Lucas et al., 2011; Mikkelsen et al., 2010; Schuch et motivation and laziness as well as low self-esteem,
al., 2017a). From which it could be concluded that efficacy, body mass index and presence of diseases
regular physical activity is preventive against de- (Vancampfort et al., 2015). Physiological, emotion-
pression among non-depressive subjects. However, al and negative experience factors as well as lack
some other studies showed that the protective effect of knowledge about the importance of exercise are
of physical exercise is restricted to women (Carroll et major domains for inactivity among depressive pa-
tients (Bruins et al., 2014; Tordeurs et al., 2011).
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AlMomen 2018, AJMS 1(1): 1-6. DOI:10.5455/ajms.2
3.5. Physical activity for management of de- significantly affect the depressive symptoms among
pression depressive patients (Meyer et al., 2016). The ses-
There is still a debate surrounding the benefits of sions of exercise must be supervised by health and
physical activity to depressive patients (Schuch et exercise professionals for gaining great effects
al., 2017b). Including exercise for management of and management of depression (Sui et al., 2009).
depression is a recent focus of many researchers
(Augestad et al., 2008; Cleare et al., 2015; Hickey et Conclusion
al., 2012; Yuan et al., 2015). Exercise could result in These studies showed that exercise is a bet-
treatment of depression among adolescents as well ter strategy for management of depression and
as among adults but among older population it could its benefits are not limited to decreasing the de-
decrease the symptoms of depression (Blumenthal pressive symptoms but also to improve the quali-
et al., 2012; Dopp et al., 2012; Hughes et al., 2013; ty of life, managing and preventing depression.
Mikkelsen et al., 2017; Nasstasia et al., 2017).
3.6. Effect of physical exercise compared References
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cal activity could be obtained after one year of Brooks, F., Magnusson, J., 2007. Physical activity as leisure:
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benefits of physical activity can also be com- ing of adolescent women. Health care for women interna-
pared to those obtained by electroconvulsive tional 28, 69-87.
therapy (ECT), light and wake therapy among Bruins, J., Jorg, F., Bruggeman, R., Slooff, C., Corpeleijn, E.,
depressive resistant patients (Salehi et al., 2014). Pijnenborg, M., 2014. The effects of lifestyle interventions
3.7. Recommendations of exercise for treat- on (long-term) weight management, cardiometabolic risk
ment of depression and depressive symptoms in people with psychotic disor-
The long term effects of physical activity could re- ders: a meta-analysis. PLoS One 9, e112276.
sult in management of depression, satisfaction and Carek, P.J., Laibstain, S.E., Carek, S.M., 2011. Exercise for
enjoying better physical health. But different rec- the treatment of depression and anxiety. International jour-
ommendations were presented for the optimal du- nal of psychiatry in medicine 41, 15-28.
ration, frequency and intensity of physical activity Carroll, D.D., Blanck, H.M., Serdula, M.K., Brown, D.R.,
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that a session of 1 hour for 3-5 times per week with in a cohort of adults aged 51 to 61. Journal of aging and
an intensity not exceeding 85% heart rate for at health 22, 384-398.
least 10 weeks could be supportive for treatment Chisholm, D., Sweeny, K., Sheehan, P., Rasmussen, B., Smit,
of depression (Rethorst and Trivedi, 2013). Also, F., Cuijpers, P., Saxena, S., 2016. Scaling-up treatment of
another study suggested that a session length of depression and anxiety: a global return on investment anal-
40 minutes repeated for 4 sessions per week with ysis. The lancet. Psychiatry 3, 415-424.
moderate intensity would result in management of Cleare, A., Pariante, C.M., Young, A.H., Anderson, I.M.,
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Moreover, moderate to vigorous exercise could des, J., Gilbody, S., Haddad, P.M., Katona, C., Lewis, G.,
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AlMomen 2018, AJMS 1(1): 1-6. DOI:10.5455/ajms.2