兩難..運動有助於減低"煩惱" ?!!

Exercise does little to help the symptoms of depression, new study finds   By SUZANNAH HILLS PUBLISHED: 07:23 GMT, 6 June 201  Exercise does little to help alleviate the symptoms of depression, a new study has found. The findings contrast with current clinical guidance which recommends exercise to help those suffering from the mental illness that affects one in six adults in Britain at any one time. But research published in the British Medical Journal suggests that doing a physical activity combined with usual treatment did not reduce symptoms of depression more than the treatment alone. Affecting millions: One in six adults in Britain suffer from depression at any one time To carry out the study researchers recruited 361 patients aged 18 to 69 years who had recently been diagnosed with depression.

Does not seem to benefit patients in clinical settings who receive good standard care…Exercise to treat depression   BMJ 2012; 344 doi: 10.1136/bmj.e3181 (Published 6 June 2012)  There has been considerable research interest in the effects of exercise on depression over the past three decades and many systematic reviews have reported moderate to large effect sizes, with the standardised mean difference for the most recent Cochrane review being −0.82 (95% confidence interval −1.12 to −0.51).1 2 3 A new linked trial (TREAtment of Depression with physical activity (TREAD); doi:10.1136/bmj.e2758) adds to this evidence base.4 At first glance reviews suggest that exercise is effective in the treatment of depression. However, most trials included in systematic reviews recruited small numbers of patients, had a short follow-up, and did not adequately conceal randomisation or recruited non-clinical community volunteers (or both). Volunteers are more likely to be motivated to exercise and may be less severely depressed than people identified in clinical settings. Subgroup analyses that included only the higher quality trials in the Cochrane review reduced the effect size to −0.42 (−0.88 to 0.03),1 casting doubt on the main finding.

Dear Sir…Your article is very interesting and we have been advising patients according to the NICE guidelines to say that Exercise helps Depression. Now we are learning that this is as good as standard care for Depression. I want to know what advice we should give about exercise to patients suffering from Depression? I am aware that this will pose a great dilemma to practising General Practitioners and Psychiatrists in the U.K. What we cannot do is give mixed message about the benefits of exercise upon their mood. Should we say that exercise will only help physical health? I would appreciate if the authors would answer these questions to help a lot of doctors give appropriate evidence based advice to patients. Many thanks for your help.