[DanBC]

> To put a finer point on it, if you want evidence behind my "platitudes" mountains of scientific literature can be found reinforcing the benefits of sleep, light, and exercise and their effects on depression.

Let's pick exercise. Here's a cochrane collaboration review:

http://www.cochrane.org/CD004366/DEPRESSN_exercise-for-depre...

> Exercise is moderately more effective than no therapy for reducing symptoms of depression.

That's your "mountain of evidence"? It's moderately better than fuck all?

[hacking_again]

> That's your "mountain of evidence"? It's moderately better than fuck all?

No, that's the conclusion. There's mountains of evidence indicating it's moderately better than fuck all. And there is, really, if a review of 39 studies reaches this conclusion.

Same goes for other physical factors like sleep, light, diet. They each contribute a bit. As can medication, therapy, healthy relationships.

[DanBC]

You didn't read the link did you?

> The reviewers also note that when only high-quality studies were included, the difference between exercise and no therapy is less conclusive.

People think exercise works. When you test it you find some evidence it works unless you do a good test, and then it doesn't look like it does anything more than doing nothing.

This is important - suicide is a leading cause of death, and people who don't know what they're talking about should stop telling people with a potentially fatal illness to "go for a jog".

[hacking_again]

This is from the conclusion of the review:

> Our review suggested that exercise might have a moderate-sized effect on depression, but because of the risks of bias in many of the trials, the effect of exercise may only be small. We cannot be certain what type and intensity of exercise may be effective, and the optimum duration and frequency of a programme of exercise. There are few data on whether any benefits persist after exercise has stopped.

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/14651858.CD004366...

My personal takeaway is that based on this review, which is more pessimistic than prior reviews, we have confidence that exercise has a small effect, and if the data were better we might be able to say it had a moderate effect.

[QAPereo]

What maniac here is suggesting that anyone drop therapy/medication for exercise? What strange world do you live on where people can only choose to do a single thing for depression?