Exercise program for the management of anxiety and depression in adults and elderly subjects: Is it applicable to post-covid-19 condition? 2023

Exercise program for the management of anxiety and depression in adults and elderly subjects: Is it applicable to patients with post-covid-19 condition? A systematic review and meta-analysis
Tommaso Piva, Sabrina Masotti, Andrea Raisi, Valentina Zerbini, Giovanni Grazzi, Gianni Mazzoni, Martino Belvederi Murri, Simona Mandini

The Coronavirus Disease 2019 (Covid-19) pandemic had dramatic effect on mental health, causing long-term psychiatricmorbidity. At present, there are no randomized trials reporting the effect of physical exercise on individuals with post- Covid-19 condition are available. The aim of this review was to summarize the evidence regarding the evidence on exercise as a treatment for anxiety and depression symptoms secondary to chronic diseases, which may be generalized to individuals suffering from the post- Covid-19 condition.

Trials were included if they reported the effects of physical exercise programs on anxiety or depression symptoms in adults, either healthy or affected by chronic diseases. Outcomes were changes of anxiety or depression severity after an exercise-based intervention.

Of the 2161 RCTs identified, eight out of 15 studies were included. Exercise was associated with greater improvements of depressive (SMD = −0.169; 95 % CI −0.302 at −0.003; p = 0.013) and anxiety symptoms (SMD = −0.263, 95 % CI −0.418 at −0.109; p = 0.001), compared with control interventions.

Supervised exercise programs were effective against symptoms of anxiety or depression among individuals with chronich illnesses. Pending specific clinical trials, exercise may be considered for adoption among patients with the post Covid-19 condition.

Link (Journal of Affective Disorders)

 

The paper could have benefited from an editor.

Right... So to summarise the summary then. There are no RCTs on exercise in "post-Covid condition" so we've published this paper that looked at depression and anxiety associated with various "chronic diseases". We looked at over 2000 papers and discarded all but 8. These were looking at patients with depression and anxiety in association with mostly (it seems) being female, overweight or having dementia. Also "stress-related exhaustion".

For depression, the patients comprised —

For anxiety, the patients comprised —

Words, tables and diagrams follow, with reference to Cochrane. The conclusion is —

This bit's good too —

So the patients didn't get fitter but were less depressed. To the contrary, they noted in another study —

So exercise didn't help anxiety, but did make people fitter? Still, go ahead and recommend all this for "post-Covid condition".

 

Journal of Affective Disorders

Then they compare to chronic diseases, where I guess they think that any such anxiety or depression, even when they define it by asking about symptoms, is just a mood disorder about being ill, not caused by the illness itself. It couldn't be more clear that anxiety and depression are merely perceived as mood/affective disorders in medicine.

The idea that there is any parity between physical and mental health is one of the cruelest sick jokes in the world, the least competent medical care is far better than the most competent mental health care, the whole field is still stuck at a level comparable to what medicine was at the time of the Humors.

 

Never thought about it like that tbh, but what if you just started handing out the same pills to people with very different conditions. It sounds very weird, yet for psychology it's the norm.

 

See transdiagnostic process