A 1999 clinical trial found exercise as effective as Zoloft for depression. After four months, all three groups improved equally. At six-month follow-up, the exercise group had lower relapse rates than the medication group.
Questions this episode answers
1999
Archives of Internal Medicine
Three groups: exercise only; Zoloft (antidepressant) only; exercise plus Zoloft.
Four months
Three supervised workouts per week, 45 minutes each, consisting of cycling or walking/jogging at moderate to high intensity.
You're listening to Optimize with Bryan Johnson, More Wisdom in Less Time this is a mini chapter from Brian's book A Philosopher's Notes. You can find it on Amazon.
Exercise vs Zoloft did you know exercise is scientifically proven to be as effective as Zoloft in reducing depression? Yep. Here's the study. Scientists took a bunch of clinically depressed peeps and randomly assigned them to three groups for four months. One group exercised, one group took an antidepressant, Zoloft, and another group tried exercise plus Zoloft. The exercise group participated in three 45 minute supervised workouts per week consisting of cycling or walking and jogging at moderate to high intensity. At the end of the four months, all three groups showed significant improvements in their well being, with exercise proving to be just as effective as the antidepressant. And get this, when the researchers checked in six months later, the exercise group was significantly less likely to have relapsed into depression than the medication group. That is huge. It makes you wonder why the results of that clinical trial aren't advertised on every other commercial. Eh, must be because anything worth advertising has to have a frightening list of possible side effects. Wink. Seriously though, I'm now stepping up on a soapbox exercise all caps, exclamation point, please. Pretty please. Our bodies were made to move and exercise has got to be the cheapest insurance policy against terminal funkiness out there. Little footnote. I picked up this from Sonia Liebomersky's brilliant book the how of Happiness, where she cites the 1999 study from the Archives of Internal Medicine. Check out the Philosopher's Note and get her phenomenal book for more exercise. It's big. Please do it.
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