Exercise as a Treatment for Depression in New Mothers: It’s as Effective as Medications

In a sample of 32 older adults (ages 60 to 84 years), subjects were randomized to one of two conditions; 10 weeks of supervised weight-lifting exercise followed by 10 weeks of unsupervised exercise; or attending lectures for 10 weeks (Singh et al., 2001). The patients all had major or minor depression and the researchers did not contact any study participant until the end of the research period at 26 months. As predicted, the exercise group was significantly less depressed at 20 weeks, and at follow-up at 26 months, than the non-exercisers. Moreover, at the 26-month follow-up, 33% of the exercisers were still regularly weight lifting vs. 0% of the controls.