ArticleFrontiers in behavioral neuroscience2021
A Brief, Individualized Exercise Program at Intensities Below the Ventilatory Threshold Exerts Therapeutic Effects for Depression: A Pilot Study.
Article in Frontiers in behavioral neuroscience, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 4 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
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Who cites it
4 citing papers in PubMed, 6 citations in OpenAlex.
- Molecules of mood: the integrated molecular transducers of exercise's antidepressant effects.Molecular genetics and genomics : MGG · 2026Review
- Editorial: Cognitive and mental health improvement under- and post-COVID-19.Frontiers in psychology · 2025Article
- Editorial: Advances in the understanding of the affective and cognitive effects of physical activity, exercise, and sports.Frontiers in psychology · 2024Article
- Physical Inactivity and Depression: The Gloomy Dual with Rising Costs in a Large-Scale Emergency.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
15 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Due to the fact that existing pharmacological treatments for depression are not ideal, effort has been devoted to the development of complementary, alternative therapies such as physical exercise. The antidepressant effect of exercise is well documented. However, current recommendations and prescriptions of exercise may be too demanding for depressed patients, as some complain about the design of exercise programs and depression is associated with reduced motivation and capacity to exercise. Therefore, appropriately designed, patient-friendly exercise programs may prove critical for the long-term maintenance and therapeutic effects of exercise. In this pilot study, we developed an exercise program based on patients' individual level of ventilatory threshold (VT), a submaximal index of aerobic capacity measured by Cardiopulmonary Exercise Testing (CPX). Compared to traditional measures, CPX provides more trustable indices of aerobic capacity and more homogenous exercise prescriptions. The main episode of the program consisted of 15-25 min of cycling twice a week at an intensity that approached but never went higher than subjects' VT (considered low to moderate in intensity). We found that in patients diagnosed with major depressive disorder or persistent depressive disorder (
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.