BACKGROUND: Physical exercise as adjunctive treatment for hospitalized @entity1 with @entity308 ( @entity308 ) has been of increasing interest in the past few years. While preliminary findings are promising, these prior studies have been plagued by inclusion of @entity1 at different stages of medication use at study entry. The present study evaluates the effects of a short (10-days) add-on endurance-training intervention in hospitalized @entity308 patients on antidepressant medication for less than two weeks. METHOD: Thirty-five @entity1 were randomly assigned to one of three study groups: aerobic exercise (n=14), placebo (stretching) exercise (n=11), or no intervention (control; n=10). The study outcome was the change in the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI-II) total score from baseline to the end of the study period. RESULTS: The intent-to-treat analysis showed significant improvements in BDI-II scores for both the aerobic and the stretching groups. However, comparing pre- to post-study depression changes in these two groups, we found a large effect size in favor of aerobic exercise (Cohen's d=-1.06). No significant change in depressive symptoms was found in the control group. LIMITATIONS: The nature of the intervention (i.e., exercise) meant blinding @entity1 to treatments was not possible. Precise information on medication dosage was not available, and the short duration of interventions and lack of follow-up assessment were all limitations. CONCLUSIONS: Endurance-training can be a helpful adjunct treatment for hospitalized @entity1 with severe @entity1316 in the initial stages of pharmacotherapy.

Efficacy of exercise as an adjunct treatment for clinically XXXX inpatients during the initial stages of antidepressant pharmacotherapy: An open randomized controlled trial.

@entity1 :: ('9606', 'Species') :: ['participants', 'patients'] @entity1316 :: ('MESH:D019964', 'Disease') :: ['affective disorders'] @entity308 :: ('MESH:D003866', 'Disease') :: ['MDD', 'major depressive disorder']
@entity308 :: (MESH:D003866,Disease) :: ['depressed']
