The Science On Running Differs By Diagnosis

Classic “Anchorman” scene

Ron Burgendy said it much better than I could when told the channel 4 news team that he and Veronica Corningstone were taking up this fad called jogging. “Believe it might be called yogging. It might be that it’s a soft J, I’m not sure,” Will Ferrell’s Anchorman character said. “Apparently you just run for an extended period of time. It’s supposed to be wild.” It is wild Ron….and it’s also backed by science. Psychiatrist Daniel Carlat, MD, points to the 218 randomized trials for 14,000 patients concluding that exercise works as well as antidepressants and psychotherapy for depression. “That's not wellness culture talking,” Carlat said. “That's a BMJ network meta-analysis (Noetel et al, BMJ 2024). In a book Carlat is helping develop he said he was surprised how specific evidence gets by diagnosis, like group sports beat individual aerobics for ADHD (likely because they demand complex cognitive skills), and 30 minutes of exercise before cognitive behavioral therapy augments treatment for those with panic disorders. About 15% of doctors we polled now write the exercise dose on a prescription pad. This needs to increase. Group exercise in outdoor settings might be best. Just ask hampsters: in animal studies, antidepressants don't work if the wheel is removed from the cage.