Olivia Sarabura The Funnel Web

Hughes, C. W., Barnes, S., Barnes, C., Defina, L. F., Nakonezny, P., and Emslie, G. J. (2013).
Depressed Adolescents Treated with Exercise (DATE): a pilot randomized controlled
trial to test feasibility and establish preliminary effect sizes. Ment. Health Phys. Act 6,
1 – 32. doi: 10.1016/j.mhpa.2013.06.006

The authors of this study found that they had concerns about the use of SSRIs to treat
depression in both short and long-term instances, so they looked for other treatment options that
do not have as many negative side effects associated with it and will also result in a reduction of
depressive symptoms for patients. They found that around 30-40% of youth and adults do not
respond to antidepressants, and those that do still have residual effects of depression, including
increased weight and overall poor quality of sleep. Therefore, the authors are looking at whether
exercise is a viable option rather than medication or psychotherapy, as it is able to address many
concerns that adolescents have towards taking medication, including social stigma, side effects
and lack of access to cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT).

The authors conducted this study to test the effects of exercise on individuals aged 12-18
with diagnosed non-psychotic major depressive disorder (MDD), and they split participants into
two groups: an aerobic exercise group (EXER) and a control group that only did stretching
exercises (STRETCH). The authors assessed depression severity based on the participants
CDRS-R score at baseline, and then compared that with their score at week 3,6,9, and 12, as well
as follow-up on week 26 and 52. They also tested the weekly total amount of energy that was
expended by using a 24/7 ACTICAL monitor data. Both the EXER and STRETCH sessions
averaged around 30-40 minutes, where the EXER group had to have a minimum of 12
kilocalories/kilogram/week (KKW), whereas the STRETCH group were less than 4 KKW.

The results found that both the exercise and stretching groups had significantly reduced
depressive symptoms, however they did reduce quicker and significantly greater in the exercise
groups by weeks 6 and 9. The authors noted that although other studies (such as the Dunn et al.
(2005) study) had difficulty maintaining adherence in their stretch placebo group, but this study
was able to have a better adherence for both of the groups (STRETCH had 81% and EXER had
77% adherence). T​​his may be due to the close monitoring of completion of sessions, as well as
the small monetary compensation each week and the ability to do the sessions at home or the
location of their choice. A limitation of this study is their relatively small sample size, and future
study should directly compare exercise with other factors other than a placebo stretching group,
such as pharmaceutical, CBT, or combinations of treatments.