Conducted among 64 adults suffering from moderate to severe depression, this randomized controlled trial highlights an essential element for patients: the speed of first benefits. Data that could change the way physical activity is prescribed in the treatment of depression.
When walking becomes a therapeutic tool
Faced with depression, current recommendations emphasize the importance of physical activity. In France, the Haute Autorité de Santé generally recommends at least three months of structured exercise to obtain a significant effect on symptoms. But for many people facing illness, this deadline can seem distant.
It is precisely this question of the time limit for action which interested the team led by Clément Ginoux. The researchers wanted to know when the benefits of exercise actually appear in people suffering from moderate to severe depression. To answer this, they set up a randomized controlled trial with 64 adults recruited by the Je Bouge Pour Mon Moral association.
The participants, mainly women aged around 50, were divided into two groups. Forty-eight people followed a supervised Nordic walking program for ten weeks. Two weekly one-hour sessions were organized at a moderate intensity corresponding to 65 to 75% of maximum heart rate. The other 16 participants made up the control group and did not change their physical activity habits.
To measure the evolution of their psychological state, all completed the Beck Depression Inventory-II (BDI-II), a reference questionnaire to assess the intensity of depressive symptoms, at the start of the study, then after five and ten weeks. No adverse effects linked to the practice of Nordic walking have been reported.
A spectacular improvement from the first five weeks
The results surprised the researchers with their speed.
After just five weeks, participants in the Nordic walking group showed a clear reduction in their depressive symptoms, while those in the control group remained generally stable (assessed by the Beck Depression Inventory-II – BDI-II). According to the analyses, almost half of the walkers reached what the researchers call a “clinical response”, that is to say a reduction of at least 50% in their symptoms, while no participant in the control group reached this threshold.
The effect was particularly strong in those most severely affected initially. The analyzes show that participants with severe depression experienced greater and faster improvement than those with moderate depression. The researchers observed that most of the benefits were concentrated in the first half of the program, between weeks 0 and 5.
In their publication, the authors emphasize the importance of this early dynamic: “The current trial provides promising evidence that supervised Nordic walking can reduce depressive symptoms within five weeks, particularly in people with severe depression at baseline. By meeting the priority objective for patients of rapid recovery, these results present physical activity as a convincing, inexpensive and accessible addition to the therapeutic arsenal against depression..
At ten weeks, improvement continued, but at a more moderate pace. However, participants who practiced Nordic walking remained significantly more likely to present a clinical response or remission of their symptoms than those in the control group.
A promising avenue, but not a miracle treatment
These results shed new light on the place of physical activity in the management of depression. They suggest that benefits could appear much sooner than current recommendations suggest.
However, researchers urge caution. The study has several limitations. Any drug treatments followed by the participants were not detailed. Symptom assessment is based on self-report questionnaires. The control group was relatively small and the sample included a very large majority of women, which limits the generalization of the results to the entire population.
These reservations, however, do not detract from the main message: physical exercise can constitute a concrete, accessible and relatively inexpensive therapeutic lever to support people suffering from depression. Not as a replacement for validated treatments, but as a complement likely to help certain patients regain well-being more quickly.
In an illness that often erodes energy, momentum and hope, knowing that improvement can emerge in just a few weeks is a valuable perspective. And reminds, once again, that the movement of the body can sometimes help to restart what depression has frozen.