Psychotherapy London

6 Responses to “counter argument against exercise as a treatment for depression?”

1. M said:
   

   March 29th, 2010 at 1:46 pm

   Well from experince when you are depressed, it is very difficult to get the motivation to exercise. Also it would probebley depend on if the depression was a chemical imbalance or if it was situational/enviormental. When you get to the point where you dont care about yourself or have the motivation to look after yourself properly and function normally, trying to go for a run is pretty difficult. But im afraid to say that yes, once you actuley start exercising, it will help! but i dont beleive it could be used as a cure or sole treatment for depression. There is nothing more frustrating in the world when you see a phychiatrist and they say ‘do some exersice, it will make you feel better!’

   Look up exercise combating chemical imbalalance in mood disorders .

   http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&client=safari&rls=en&ei=HPKkS8DJLZ2I0wS3rsHrCQ&sa=X&oi=spell&resnum=0&ct=result&cd=1&ved=0CAUQBSgA&q=exercise+combating+chemical+imbalance+in+mood+disorders&spell=1

2. mistify said:
   

   March 29th, 2010 at 1:46 pm

   Although I do not know specifically of anything negative about it, when trying to take a counterposition on a topic where research seems to support it, look at the studies themselves…was their adequate sample size, was the trial randomized, what were the outcomes measures used and are those measures objective and reliable or prone to subjectivity, what is the rate of compliance or what is the drop out rate? Finally, what are the costs of implementing an exercise versus other treatments…what are the long term outcomes?

   I’d certainly be in favor of it, but if you need to take the opposition, this is probably a good way to approach it.

3. Valapamo said:
   

   March 29th, 2010 at 1:46 pm

   Is the research you are finding stating that exercise by itself is a treatment for depression? Because if it is combined with another form of treatment then technically one can not assume that it is the exercise that is effective in treating the depression.

   (however in my opinion it is a good component for depression treatment, but not a cure all. Other treatment methods are usually combined with it and are needed to combine with it or it doesn’t do too much, especially for severe depression).

4. Shadow said:
   

   March 29th, 2010 at 1:46 pm

   The best source I can give you is myself and a friend,
   I used to suffer from depression and I know someone who is currently struggling with it. I never found exercise to help and my friend defiantly hasn’t.
   Maybe a combination of the correct medication and exercise is good but I suffered from severe depression and my friend is suffering from it herself now and exercise on it’s own is defiantly not a good treatment.

   Sorry I can’t help more.

5. Jeff said:
   

   March 29th, 2010 at 1:46 pm

   I don’t have a reliable source. Just myself. When I am depressed, the last thing I want to do is exercise. I don’t want to do a thing! If I could get up and do some exercises, I doubt I would be depressed anymore.

6. Susas said:
   

   March 29th, 2010 at 1:46 pm

   Perhaps there might be something about exercise as a treatment for depression sometimes leading to anorexia?

   Also there might be a way to argue that the effect of exercise is not always significant enough to rely on it as the sole treatment method, especially in severe cases of depression. You could also discuss the difficulty depressed people have getting motivated to exercise.

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