Personalized training as a promoter for physical activity in people with depressive disorder-a randomized controlled trial in Germany.

Introduction: Adopting an active lifestyle is an important goal, but can be difficult to achieve for people with depressive disorders. Current guidelines recommend the integration of physical activity in the multimodal treatment of depressive disorders. However, the possibilities to provide individual support for physical activities are frequently limited. The aim of our study was to examine how physical activity can be increased in a real-world setting by combining physical training and psychological interventions. Materials and methods: In this randomized-controlled interventional study, 31 outpatients diagnosed with moderate to severe depression were recruited from the region of Hannover. The intervention group ( Results: In the intervention group, MVPA increased significantly between baseline and the first follow-up and remained at an increased level at the second follow-up in comparison to decreased levels in the control group (difference of 15.5  min/day between groups over time, SE = 6.2  min/day, 95%-CI[2.7, 28.3], Conclusion: The intervention proved to be a feasible and effective aid to promote a physically active lifestyle for patients diagnosed with depression. Furthermore, the higher level of physical activity was maintained for the follow-up period. Given the success of the approach evaluated in this project, individual support for physical activity should be investigated in larger sample sizes and potentially be considered in the multimodal treatment of depression. Clinical trial registration: [https://clinicaltrials.gov/], identifier [DRKS00023257].