Physical Exercise and Geriatric Depression: An Opinion

Abstract

Depression represents a common public health problem in the world. Depression in the elderly appears to follow a vulnerability-stress model, with an interaction between individual vulnerabilities, including genetic factors, age-related cognitive and neurobiological changes, and a variety of stressful events that occur more frequently in advanced ages, such as grief, financial problems, and reduction in autonomy/functionality. In the last decades, several studies have indicated that exercise can be effective in preventing or reducing depressive symptoms, both in healthy and psychiatric populations. Due to the scientific community's interest in the efficacy and safety of physical exercise as complementary therapy for depressed elderly patients, we conduct an opinion study on the subject. Despite the researchers' efforts, in the last decades little progress has been made in verifying the efficacy of exercise in geriatric depression.