Exercise may help teens with depressive symptoms even if they don't have depression

Embargoed until: Publicly released: 2026-07-07 01:00

Australia; International; VIC

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Aerobic exercise could help teens reduce depressive symptoms even if they don't have clinical depression, according to international and Australian research. The research, which was an analysis of previous trial data, found that a 12-month aerobic exercise program was more effective than mood and depression
education sessions for teens with symptoms of depression where the symptoms did not yet meet clinical thresholds of depression. The researchers also found that the exercise was linked to changes in brainwave scans, which could be used as markers to build personalised exercise-based interventions for teens.

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Research JAMA, Web page Please link to the article in online versions of your report (the URL will go live after the embargo ends).

Journal/
conference: JAMA Network Open

Research:Paper

Organisation/s: Deakin University, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, China

Funder: This study was funded by grants U22A20301 (Profs So and Lin), 82171531 (Prof Lin), and 82371558 (Dr Shao) from the National Natural Science Foundation of China; STG STG1/M-501/23-N from the Hong Kong Research Grants Council (RGC) theme-based Strategic Target Grant Scheme (Prof Lin); 17600425 from the Hong Kong RGC General Research Fund (Dr Shao); and 25GDL004 from the Liaoning Normal University High-Level Scientific Research Achievements Cultivation Project (Dr Zhang).

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