Researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston say they have found that higher levels of physical activity may causally reduce risk for depression.
The study, published online in JAMA Psychiatry, used a novel research method which studied gene variants to strongly support physical activity as a preventive measure for depression.
The study was also published in late January by EurekAlert, the online journal of the American Association for the Advancement of Science
“On average, doing more physical activity appears to protect against developing depression,” said Karmel Choi of the hospital’s Psychiatric and Neurodevelopmental Genetics Unit, and lead author of the report.
“Any activity appears to be better than none,” Choi said. “Our rough calculations suggest that replacing sitting with 15 minutes of a heart-pumping activity like running, or with an hour of moderately vigorous activity, is enough to produce the average increase in accelerometer data that was linked to a lower depression risk.”
An accelerometer is an electromechanical device used for measuring acceleration forces.
“It’s one thing to know that physical activity could be beneficial for preventing depression; it’s another to actually get people to be physically active,” he said. “More work needs to be done to figure out how best to tailor recommendations to different kinds of people with different risk profiles. More work needs to be done to figure out how best to tailor recommendations to different kinds of people with different risk profiles.”
Choi said his team is now looking at whether and how much physical activity can benefit different at-risk groups, such as people who are genetically vulnerable to depression or those going through stressful situations and hope to develop a better understanding of physical activity to promote resilience to depression.
