Expert Q&A

I’ve been feeling down lately, and a friend suggested I try walking on my husband’s treadmill in the basement to boost my mood. She swears it cured her own depression. Could that possibly be true?

Doctors have long recommended exercise to relieve depression, and for good reason. In a study of 80 people that we recently completed, those with mild or moderate clinical depression cut their symptoms in half after 12 weeks of using a treadmill or stationary bike for 30 minutes, three to five times a week. This is comparable to the effect that other studies have found for antidepressants and talk therapy. There’s good evidence that exercise triggers chemical changes in the brain similar to those of antidepressants. Even subjects who only stretched also saw some drop in symptoms. But sweating hard is the key to real relief. Those who got the best results worked out at high intensity (between 75 to 80 percent of maximum heart rate). This doesn’t mean you should avoid medication, however. In fact, combining exercise with antidepressants could be even more effective than exercise alone.

Expert Madhukar A. Trivedi, M.D., is the director of the mood disorders research program at UT Southwestern Medical Center.

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