AUTHOR=Sandra Dasha A. , Olson Jay A. , Pageaux Benjamin , Roy Mathieu 

TITLE=“Ready-to-use” two-week home exercise program targeting depressive symptoms: pilot study

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Psychiatry

VOLUME=14

YEAR=2023

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychiatry/articles/10.3389/fpsyt.2023.1202955

DOI=10.3389/fpsyt.2023.1202955

ISSN=1664-0640

ABSTRACT=<p>Exercise is an evidence-based treatment for depressive symptoms, yet it often requires specialised knowledge, equipment, or professional supervision. Lay people in certain contexts, for example in remote locations or under pandemic restrictions, often lack these resources and thus cannot use exercise to manage their depressive symptoms. We developed a two-week home exercise program that bypasses these barriers and tested it in university students during pandemic restrictions. In an online study, we recruited 49 participants to complete a week of baseline symptom monitoring then follow the exercise program for 2 weeks (6 sessions) at home. The exercise program involved aerobic and resistance training; each session lasted approximately 45 min. After 2 weeks of the intervention, participants reported lower depressive (standardised <inline-formula><mml:math id="M1" xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"><mml:mi>β</mml:mi></mml:math></inline-formula> = −0.71 [−1.05, −0.38]) and anxiety (<inline-formula><mml:math id="M2" xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"><mml:mi>β</mml:mi></mml:math></inline-formula> = −0.87 [−1.19, −0.55]) symptoms. Although we cannot make causal conclusions, our results suggest that the brief home exercise program may have potential to reduce depressive symptoms in young adults.</p>