Antidepressant effects of exercise: Does mindset matter?

Background

Following research by reported by Crum and Langer (2007), perhaps changing a person's mindset (i.e., beliefs and expectations) about exercise could be a key to facilitating the antidepressant effects of exercise without changing the behavior itself.

Methods

The experimental group participants were told that their daily activities were considered exercise which would alleviate their depressive symptoms. Control participants read a script that discussed various effective strategies to alleviate depressive symptoms.

Results

No preexisting differences in depression between groups approached significance, nor were there differences on any measure administered pre-experiment. A multilevel model analysis indicated a significant difference between the groups’ depression scores over time, with the mindset group's depressive symptoms decreasing more rapidly than those of the control groups. Although not of prime interest, result showed that anxiety scores also decreased more rapidly in the mindset condition.

Conclusion

Altering mindset about exercise appears to, accelerates decreases in depressive symptoms. mindfulness-based therapies may quite naturally integrate elements that facilitate a patient's positive mindset and expectations. Broadly speaking, clinicians who are attuned to finding ways to incorporate therapeutic placebos like a positive mindset may find this beneficial to patients. As such, influencing mindset may be an effective aid in the treatment of depression.