Major Depressive Disorder and the Treatment of Aerobic Exercise Therapy
Melissa Young
Abnormal Psychology
SUNY Geneseo
9/20/10

The article “Exercise Treatment for Major Depression: Maintenance of Therapeutic Benefit at 10 Months” is based on a study from the year 2000, of two different treatment methods in regards to Major Depressive Disorder(MDD). This study (the Standard Medical Intervention and Long-term Exercise, or SMILE study), follows both aerobic exercise therapy and sertraline(Medicated) therapy. This longitudinal experiment was conducted with the possibility to develop a practical application to the present and future treatment of MDD. According to the article; “Aerobic exercise has been prescribed for the treatment of a wide range of medical disorders”, and “exercise may have a number of psychological benefits(p.633).” Given this positive outlook on exercise in the medical and psychological world, it is presumed that the exercise treatment will show positive results in this experiment. Researching more about exercise therapy could open up possible doors for the present and future world of treatment for mental disorders. In the SMILE study, 156 adult volunteers aged 50 and older, with MDD were randomly selected to participate in three different treatment groups. The three treatment groups included aerobic exercise therapy, sertraline therapy, and a combination of both exercise and medication. The independent variable was the different methods of treatment used with the patients. Therefore, the dependent variable was the short and long term results of the treatments. The patients were in therapy for 4 months(16 weeks) and at the end of the treatment, each patient was given depression evaluations. Six months after the treatment ended, patients were again evaluated. At the end of the four month treatment period, all three groups showed similar results. 60.4% of patients in the exercise group, 65.5% in the medication group, and 68.8% in the combined group did not meet the DSM-IV standards for Major Depressive Disorder(Babyak,2000, p.633-638).The second evaluations given after the sixth month period did not show as similar results. Only 133 of the original 156 enrolled patients had available assessments. Results of the evaluations showed that participants in the exercise group had lower levels of depression than those in the other two groups. Participants within the remaining two groups were concluded to be about equally depressed. According to the article’s results, “participants in the exercise group were more likely than those in the medication group to be partially or fully recovered at the 6-month follow-up visit(p.635).” Patients that continued to practice aerobic exercise on their own were less likely to be declared depressed at the end of the second evaluation. In general, the results indicated that the exercise treatment group proved to be most beneficial.
The construction of the study was designed very well. It was arranged in a very organized and straight-forward fashion. However, the fact that the 156 patients were volunteers does create a bias. Being that these people volunteered themselves, it is understood that they are interested in seeking help. Also, they might have been interested in the idea of aerobic exercise treatment before participating in the study. This could be a reason for the positive results regarding the exercise therapy. On the other hand, without asking for volunteers for the study, it would have been difficult to find patients who fit the criteria at random. Overall, the combined therapy/treatment group was a crucial addition to the study with some informative and interesting results. The original expectations of the combined treatment group varied greatly from the actual results. It was assumed that this group would have an additive effect but in reality, the combining of both aerobic exercise and sertraline medication showed no advantage whatsoever than that of the other treatments by themselves. The groups involving medication treatment did benefit the patients on their road to recovery, however it is suggested in the article that exercise could have a more positive attitudinal effect on treating depression. Patients who undergo exercise therapy tend to have a mindset of “I was dedicated and worked hard with the exercise program; it wasn’t easy, but I beat this depression(p.636).” Instead, patients who are being treated by medication might have the thought process of “I took an antidepressant and got better(p.636).” These two different outlooks show the possibility that exercise might have a more positive effect on one’s self image.
One change that might have benefit this study would be the addition of another treatment group. Comparing talk therapy with exercise and medication could be very beneficial. Possibly adding a group that uses only talk therapy, or even a combined therapy of both aerobic exercise and talk therapy, could broaden the article’s research and expand their results. Exercise therapy has shown many positive results within this study, including the addition of talk therapy. As discussed before, medication might not hold as much of a positive outlook for patients as exercise therapy. Another possible method is inferred through today’s general positive feedback from talk therapy. Putting these two together could have great outcomes. Having more treatment groups could cause disorganization and would require more work. Therefore, it would be more sufficient to conduct a separate study dealing with the idea of combining exercise and talk therapy together.
The ending results of this study positively supported the outlook and hypothesis of exercise therapy. The article’s conclusions stimulate many good inferences in regards to exercise therapy. Possible future research concerning the combination of exercise and talk therapy could also lead to influential discoveries. Overall, this study showed exercise therapy to have many positive effects on the treatment of Major Depressive Disorder.

References
Babyak, M., Blumenthal, J.A., Herman, S., Khatri, P., Doraiswamy, M., Moore, K., et al.(2000).
Exercise treatment for major depression: Maintenance of therapeutic benefit at 10 months. Psychosomatic Medicine, 62, 633-638.