Antidepressant effects of exercise: Does mindset matter?
Background: Following research by reported by Crum and Langer (2007), perhaps changing a person's mindset (i.e., beliefs and expectations) about exercise could be a key to facilitating the antidepressant effects of exercise without changing the behavior itself. Methods: The experimental group p...
Saved in:
| Main Authors: | , |
|---|---|
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Elsevier
2025-04-01
|
| Series: | Journal of Affective Disorders Reports |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2666915325000319 |
| Tags: |
Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
|
| _version_ | 1850140922138853376 |
|---|---|
| author | Kendall Kohnle Rick Ingram |
| author_facet | Kendall Kohnle Rick Ingram |
| author_sort | Kendall Kohnle |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Background: Following research by reported by Crum and Langer (2007), perhaps changing a person's mindset (i.e., beliefs and expectations) about exercise could be a key to facilitating the antidepressant effects of exercise without changing the behavior itself. Methods: The experimental group participants were told that their daily activities were considered exercise which would alleviate their depressive symptoms. Control participants read a script that discussed various effective strategies to alleviate depressive symptoms. Results: No preexisting differences in depression between groups approached significance, nor were there differences on any measure administered pre-experiment. A multilevel model analysis indicated a significant difference between the groups’ depression scores over time, with the mindset group's depressive symptoms decreasing more rapidly than those of the control groups. Although not of prime interest, result showed that anxiety scores also decreased more rapidly in the mindset condition. Conclusion: Altering mindset about exercise appears to, accelerates decreases in depressive symptoms. mindfulness-based therapies may quite naturally integrate elements that facilitate a patient's positive mindset and expectations. Broadly speaking, clinicians who are attuned to finding ways to incorporate therapeutic placebos like a positive mindset may find this beneficial to patients. As such, influencing mindset may be an effective aid in the treatment of depression. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-76c30cd4679f4859b686d4f6e9f122e4 |
| institution | OA Journals |
| issn | 2666-9153 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-04-01 |
| publisher | Elsevier |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Journal of Affective Disorders Reports |
| spelling | doaj-art-76c30cd4679f4859b686d4f6e9f122e42025-08-20T02:29:39ZengElsevierJournal of Affective Disorders Reports2666-91532025-04-012010090110.1016/j.jadr.2025.100901Antidepressant effects of exercise: Does mindset matter?Kendall Kohnle0Rick Ingram1University of Kansas, USAUniversity of Kansas, USABackground: Following research by reported by Crum and Langer (2007), perhaps changing a person's mindset (i.e., beliefs and expectations) about exercise could be a key to facilitating the antidepressant effects of exercise without changing the behavior itself. Methods: The experimental group participants were told that their daily activities were considered exercise which would alleviate their depressive symptoms. Control participants read a script that discussed various effective strategies to alleviate depressive symptoms. Results: No preexisting differences in depression between groups approached significance, nor were there differences on any measure administered pre-experiment. A multilevel model analysis indicated a significant difference between the groups’ depression scores over time, with the mindset group's depressive symptoms decreasing more rapidly than those of the control groups. Although not of prime interest, result showed that anxiety scores also decreased more rapidly in the mindset condition. Conclusion: Altering mindset about exercise appears to, accelerates decreases in depressive symptoms. mindfulness-based therapies may quite naturally integrate elements that facilitate a patient's positive mindset and expectations. Broadly speaking, clinicians who are attuned to finding ways to incorporate therapeutic placebos like a positive mindset may find this beneficial to patients. As such, influencing mindset may be an effective aid in the treatment of depression.http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2666915325000319DepressionMindsetExerciseExpectationsTreatment of depression |
| spellingShingle | Kendall Kohnle Rick Ingram Antidepressant effects of exercise: Does mindset matter? Journal of Affective Disorders Reports Depression Mindset Exercise Expectations Treatment of depression |
| title | Antidepressant effects of exercise: Does mindset matter? |
| title_full | Antidepressant effects of exercise: Does mindset matter? |
| title_fullStr | Antidepressant effects of exercise: Does mindset matter? |
| title_full_unstemmed | Antidepressant effects of exercise: Does mindset matter? |
| title_short | Antidepressant effects of exercise: Does mindset matter? |
| title_sort | antidepressant effects of exercise does mindset matter |
| topic | Depression Mindset Exercise Expectations Treatment of depression |
| url | http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2666915325000319 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT kendallkohnle antidepressanteffectsofexercisedoesmindsetmatter AT rickingram antidepressanteffectsofexercisedoesmindsetmatter |