Mindpreliminary · human dataDiscovery of the day
Pooled results from 22 trials in 1255 college students with depressive symptoms suggest exercise may meaningfully reduce depression scores, with possible benefits for anxiety and physiological markers too, though the certainty of the evidence is low.
- Study design
- Review
- Journal
- Acta Psychol (Amst)
- Evidence
- preliminary
What it shows: Promising but shaky: results pooled from 22 trials in 1255 students all point the same way, yet the underlying studies were weak enough that the authors rate their own confidence in the depression finding as low, and even lower for the biological markers. The true effect could be a good deal smaller than the headline figures suggest.Review · Acta Psychol (Amst)
Effects of exercise on depression, anxiety, and physiological/biochemical markers in college students with depressive symptoms: A three-level meta-analysis. Acta Psychol (Amst) 2026Read the study →