Culture Post: Exercise Helps Kids’ Mood Disorders, Can Serve as Alternative to Meds, Review Finds

The following is excerpted from an online article posted by HealthDay.

Regular exercise can ease mood disorders in children and teens, offering an alternative to medications like antidepressants, a new evidence review has concluded.

Both anxiety and depression decrease when kids take part in structured exercise programs, researchers reported in the Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry.

Further, the review found that anxiety and depression symptoms are relieved by different types of workout regimens.

“Exercise is a low-cost, widely accessible strategy that could make a real difference to children’s mental health,” lead investigator Ben Singh, a research fellow with the University of South Australia, said in a news release.

Importantly, exercise could help improve kids’ moods without resorting to drugs like antidepressants, researchers added.

For the new review, researchers pooled data from 375 prior clinical trials involving more than 38,000 kids 5 to 18.

Results showed that:

• Anxiety improved through low-intensity resistance exercise, such as lifting light weights or gentle training using circuit weight machines.
• Depression improved most through moderate-intensity exercise in training that combines aerobic and strength programs.

The biggest improvements in depression symptoms occurred in programs lasting fewer than three months, suggesting that benefits of exercise can emerge relatively quickly, researchers said.

Source: HealthDay
https://www.healthday.com/health-news/mental-health/exercise-helps-kids-mood-disorders-can-serve-as-alternative-to-meds-review-finds