Physical Exercise and Depressive Symptoms in Moderately or Severely Depressed Adults

Study Overview
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Brief Summary
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This study is a comparative trial comparing the time course of depressive symptoms between moderately and severely depressed participants over a 10-week long exercise program

Detailed Description
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Sixty depressed French adults (34 with symptoms of moderate intensity and 26 with symptoms of severe intensity as defined by the PHQ-9 cutting scores) voluntarily participated in our comparative trial. A control group (waiting list) of n = 16 including 8 severely depressed and 8 moderately depressed participants received no physical exercise. For the remaining 44 participants (26 with moderate-intensity depressive symptoms and 18 with high-intensity depressive symptoms), two weekly Nordic Walking sessions of 1h were performed for 10 consecutive weeks. Depressive symptoms were assessed using standard self-report questionnaires at various time points: 1/ enrollment (using the PHQ-9), and then (2) just before the beginning of the exercise intervention (pre-intervention; using the BDI-II), 2/ at the end of Week 5 (mid-intervention; using the BDI-II), and 3/ the day following the end of the exercise program (post-intervention)

Official Title
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Do Moderately and Severely Depressed Individuals Derive the Same Psychological Benefits From a 10-weeks Long Aerobic Exercise Program ?

Conditions
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Depressive Symptoms

Intervention / Treatment
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* Behavioral: Nordic Walking


Participation Criteria
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Eligibility Criteria
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Inclusion Criteria: PHQ-9 (Kroenke et al., 2001) score of 10 or above Exclusion Criteria: medical contraindication to moderate-intensity aerobic exercise inability to read French language

Ages Eligible for Study
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Minimum Age: 18 Years
Maximum Age: 65 Years

Sexes Eligible for Study
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All

Accepts Healthy Volunteers
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Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Study Plan
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How is the study designed?
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Design Details

Primary Purpose: Supportive Care
Allocation: Randomized
Intervention Model: Parallel Assignment
Interventional Model Description: open randomized controlled trial
Masking: None (Open Label)


Arms and Interventions

| Participant Group/Arm | Intervention/Treatment |
| --- | --- |
| Experimental: Nordic Walking<br>2 weekly sessions of supervised Nordic Walking in a city park with trees, grass, and ponds. Exercise intensity was set at 65%-75% of age-predicted maximal heart rate. The length of training was consecutive 10 weeks | Behavioral: Nordic Walking<br>* Nordic Walking (NW) is an aerobic physical activity where regular walking is enhanced by the addition of the active use of specifically designed NW poles. The physical strain is distributed in a balanced way to various muscle groups of the whole body.<br>|
| No Intervention: control<br>no intervention | |

What is the study measuring?
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Primary Outcome Measures

| Outcome Measure | Measure Description | Time Frame |
| --- | --- | --- |
| change in the intensity of depressive symptoms | self-evaluated intensity of depressive symptoms. Was obtained using the standard Beck Depression Inventory (BDI-II; Beck et al., 1996) | 10 weeks | 

 Terms related to the study
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Keywords Provided by Centre Hospitalier Valida
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add-on treatment