The title of this post does not match the title of the paper. The report does not say "exercise does not make you less depressed". The report mentions some of the weaknesses; some comments to the article do a good job at pointing out other weaknesses. Exercise is not just pushed at people with depression to treat that depression; it's to help with other stuff too:- * medication side effects (sometimes include weight…
The title matches the results though... "Results: There was no evidence that participants offered the physical activity intervention reported improvement in mood by the four month follow-up point compared with those in the usual care group; adjusted between group difference in mean Beck depression inventory score −0.54 (95% confidence interval −3.06 to 1.99; P=0.68). Similarly, there was no evidence that the interven…
> Nor was there evidence that the intervention reduced antidepressant use
People are recommended to stay on anti-depressants for at least 6 months after feeling well, and for at least two years if they're at risk of relapse.
(http://publications.nice.org.uk/depression-in-adults-quality...)
So it's difficult to use antidepressant use as a guide to whether people feel recovered or not.
It's also unclear whether the intervention offered matches current NICE guidelines, which says
> 1.4.2.4 Physical activity programmes for people with persistent subthreshold depressive symptoms or mild to moderate depression should:
> * be delivered in groups with support from a competent practitioner
> *consist typically of three sessions per week of moderate duration (45 minutes to 1 hour) over 10 to 14 weeks (average 12 weeks).
About prescription: Yes, some people think exercise is a wonder drug. I'm not interested in those people unless they're treating patients. Your wikipedia article says:
> While positive psychology can inform clinical psychology, it is not helpful to stretch beyond this point
I live in the UK. Clinicians should refer to the NICE guidance. The NICE guidance is pretty specific about what constitutes physical exercise. That's because the evidence for exercise isn't great. The Cochrane review (http://summaries.cochrane.org/CD004366/exercise-for-depressi...) has a good summary of the evidence - when you only include high quality reviews there's only small benefits from exercise.
But, even if the benefit for depression from exercise is slim there are other reasons to do exercise, and it's important that people are helped to exercise, especially if they're at risk of self-neglect.
More research is needed. It's great that this study has been done. But it's incredibly frustrating that this one study is reported in terms such as "Exercise does not help depression".