The Journal of clinical psychiatry
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Review Meta Analysis
The effect of exercise in clinically depressed adults: systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials.
To assess the effectiveness of exercise in adults with clinical depression. ⋯ Our results suggest a short-term effect of exercise on depression: on average, depression scores 0.4 of a standard deviation lower in clinically depressed patients randomly assigned to an exercise intervention at the end of that intervention compared to those randomly assigned to a none exercise group. There is little evidence of a long-term beneficial effect of exercise in patients with clinical depression.