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Journal Clinical Psychiatry and Cognitive Psychology | Volume 3
allied
academies
March 18-19, 2019 | London, UK
6th World Congress on
Anxiety, Depression and Stress Management
Clinical depression has been connected with cortisol
changes, high stress and anxiety levels. The neurobiology
of depression has not been totally understood yet, but
there is support demonstrating that stressful life events
and dysregulation on the stress physiology, especially in
the hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis are strongly
associated. Changes in plasma concentrations e.g. in cortisol
have been systematically reported.
We examined the effects of exercise in patients with depression
on cortisol, stress and anxiety levels. Nineteen women with
clinical depression were randomly assigned to one of two
groups: aerobic exercise plus pharmacotherapy or only
pharmacotherapy. Control group involved ten patients who
carried onwith their usual pharmacological therapy but without
exercise and the exercise group included nine patients that
performed aerobic exercise, 45-50 min/session, three times/
week, for 16 weeks. Cortisol in plasma was measured using
the chemiluminescent ADVIA Centaur Cortisol immunoassay
and Depression Anxiety Stress Scale-21 (DASS-21) was used to
assess anxiety and stress levels.
Results showed that anxiety and stress sub-scales (assessed by
DASS-21) presented a significant reduction that indicated an
anxiolytic exercise effect. Exercise group had a statistically
significant and large effect on both anxiety (p=0.025;
η2p=0.262) and stress (p=0.012; η2p=0.316) scores After
exercise intervention cortisol response to exercise did not
differ when we observed the interaction between time X group
(F (1,17) =1.724, p=0.207, η2p=0.092). Since no significant
changes in cortisol plasma levels between groups were found,
it was not possible to bridge the effect of exercise in depressive
symptoms and cortisol levels. The lack of significant difference
between groups may be explained by the small sample size and
patients´ large age range (18–65 years), which could contribute
to a greater result variability and the inclusion of patients
diagnosed with different subtypes of depressive pathology.
Data are preliminary outcomes from a small sample and should
be replicated.
Speaker Biography
Lara S F Carneiro, BSc (Sports Science), MSc and PhD, is a Lecturer in the exercise and
mental health field. She was a PhD fellow in 2012 by the Portuguese Foundation for
Science and Technology, after leading a trial of exercise for major depressive disorder.
In 2014 she was awarded the first prize of Psychology and Pedagogy in Sports with the
investigation “Exercise as a complementary treatment of pharmacotherapy in patients
with clinical depression” by the Portuguese Olympic Committee and the Millennium
BCP Foundation. She is interested in the effects of exercise on major depressive
disorder, its moderators, and its neurobiological correlation. She has participated
in national and international conferences as an invited speaker and keynote.
e:
Lara S F Carneiro1,2
Maria Paula Mota2, Maria Augusta Vieira-Coelho3, Renato
Sobral Monteiro-Junior 4, José Vasconcelos-Raposo5
1University of Ismai, Portugal
2Research Centre in Sports Sciences, Portugal
3Centro Hospitalar São João, Portugal
4State University of Montes Claros, Brazil
5Portugal Institute for Systems and Computer Engineering, Portugal
The influence of exercise on Cortisol, Anxiety and Stress levels in patients with
Depression