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The observed antidepressant effect of resistance exercise training is smaller in trials where allocation and/or assessment was blinded, indicating that unblinded trials may overestimate the effect due to bias.
Be aware that the large effects often cited in unblinded studies may be inflated by participant expectations. However, even in rigorous, blinded trials, resistance exercise training still produces a significant, moderate reduction in depressive symptoms.
GoodQualifiesHIGH confidence
Smaller reductions in depressive symptoms were derived from randomized clinical trials with blinded allocation and/or assessment.
Why this rating
Meta-regression analysis of trial quality.
Source
Association of Efficacy of Resistance Exercise Training With Depressive Symptoms
Brett R. Gordon et al. · JAMA Psychiatry · 2018
DOI 10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2018.0572
Meta-analysis · 33 studiesCited 462×
Read the paper DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10
More from this paper
- Resistance exercise training (RET) significantly reduces depressive symptoms in adults, regardless of health status, total prescribed volume, or strength improvements.Good
- The magnitude of depressive symptom reduction from resistance exercise training is larger in individuals with mild to moderate depression compared to those with subclinical symptoms.Good
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