Background: Postnatal depression affects about 10-15% of women in the year after giving birth. Many women and healthcare professionals would like an effective and accessible nonpharmacological treatment for postnatal depression.
Methods: Women who fulfilled the ICD-10 criteria for major depression in the first six months postnatally were randomised to receive usual care plus a facilitated exercise intervention or usual care only. The intervention involved two face to face consultations and two telephone support calls with a physical activity facilitator over six months to support participants to engage in regular exercise. The primary outcome was symptoms of depression using the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS) at six month post-randomisation. Secondary outcomes included EPDS score as a binary variable (recovered and improved) at six and 12 month post-randomisation.
Results: 146 women were potentially eligible and 94 were randomised. 34% reported thoughts of self-harming at baseline. After adjusting for baseline EPDS, analyses revealed a – 2.04 mean difference in EPDS score, favouring the exercise group (95% CI: -4.11 to 0.03, p=0.05). When also adjusting for pre-specified demographic variables the effect was larger and statistically significant (mean difference=-2.26, 95% CI:-4.36 to -0.16, p=0.03). Based on EPDS score a larger proportion of the intervention group were recovered (46.5% versus 23.8%, p=0.03) compared with usual care at six months follow-up.
Conclusions: This trial shows an exercise intervention that involved encouragement to exercise and to seek out social support to exercise may be an effective treatment for women with postnatal depression, including those with thoughts of self-harming

Direct Link: https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/185482103.pdf

Journal: Psychol Med. 2015 Aug 1;45(11):2413-25.

Keywords: Depression, exercise, Physical Activity, postnatal, postpartum, primary care,

Applications: Physical Activity,

CamNtech Reference: AH15056

Back to Search Results

UK & International customers

CamNtech Ltd.
Manor Farm
Fenstanton
Cambridgeshire
PE28 9JD, UK

US customers

CamNtech Inc.
630 Boerne Stage Airfield,
Boerne,
Texas 78006,
USA

Copyright

© 2024 CamNtech Ltd and CamNtech Inc

Company information

Registered in England No. 2221302
VAT No: GB486 3019 34


Privacy Policy