Good for what ails you? An umbrella review of physical activity for mental health Original paper

In this umbrella review, physical activity had moderate-sized beneficial effects on depression, anxiety, and psychological distress.

The effect of physical activity (via exercise) on depression, anxiety, and psychological distress.

Subgroup analyses were performed for clinical condition, type of exercise, exercise intensity, overall exercise intervention duration, number of exercise sessions per week, and exercise session duration.

A total of 128,119 adults (median age of 55).

This umbrella review (a review of reviews) of 97 reviews of randomized controlled trials examined the effect of exercise on mental health in a wide variety of health conditions such as HIV, cancer, and pregnancy/postpartum.

Exercise had moderate-sized beneficial effects on depression, anxiety, and psychological distress.

In the subgroup analyses by clinical condition, exercise had the largest effects on participants with kidney disease, HIV, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and on otherwise healthy participants.

For specific types of exercise, many types and intensities of exercise were effective, although higher intensity exercise was more effective in anxiety and especially depression.

In some subanalyses of duration, medium or shorter durations had larger effects.

Shorter exercise durations may be easier to adhere to than longer durations, especially with higher intensity exercise, and especially in depression and anxiety, conditions in which there may be a larger mental barrier to exercise. These barriers can take the form of the greater fatigue found in depression or the excessive worry and fear of trying something new found in anxiety.

However, it is fortunate that even shorter durations of exercise seem to help in treating depression and anxiety.