Resistance Exercise Training For Depressive Symptom Severity Among Young Women With Analogue Generalized Anxiety Disorder

Compared to inactive controls, resistance exercise training (RET) has shown promising effects on depressive symptom severity. Antidepressant effects of RET, controlling for potential social and psychological benefits of engaging with even minimally-active conditions, however, remain unclear. PURPOSE: To conduct interim analyses of an ongoing fourteen-week randomized controlled trial of the effects of 10 weeks of RET compared to a low dose SHAM RET attention-control on depressive symptom severity among young adult women with analogue Generalized Anxiety Disorder (AGAD). METHODS: 39 participants (21.8 ± 2.5y) with AGAD (Psychiatric Diagnostic Screening Questionnaire GAD subscale ≥6 and Penn State Worry Questionnaire ≥45) were randomized to 10 weeks of one-on-one supervised, moderate-to-high dose (70-80% 1 repetition maximum (RM)), American College of Sports Medicine-guidelines based RET with two sets of 8-12 repetitions of eight exercises, or low dose (20% 1RM) SHAM RET matched on all features of RET engagement apart from the active derivative (i.e., load). The 16-item, self-reported Quick Inventory of Depressive Symptomatology (QIDS) measured depressive symptom severity at baseline, end of two-week familiarization (pre-week 1), week 4, 8, and 1-month follow-up. A two (group) x five (timepoint) RM-ANOVA examined differences between RET and SHAM. Cohen’s d effect sizes (95%CI) quantified the magnitude of within-condition change. Hedges’ d effect sizes (95%CI) quantified the magnitude of differences in change between groups. RESULTS: No significant group x time interaction was found for depressive symptom severity (F(3.4,124) = 0.52, p > 0.69; d = 0.30, 95%CI: [-0.34 to 0.93]). A significant main effect for time was found (F(3.4,124) = 22.60, p < 0.001), such that depressive symptom severity reduced following both moderate-to-high (d = 1.50 [0.83 to 2.17]) and low dose SHAM (d = 0.77 [ 0.07 to 1.46]) RET. Reductions persisted at one-month follow-up for moderate-to-high (d = 1.71 [1.02 to 2.40]) and low dose (d = 0.80 [0.10 to 1.50]) RET. CONCLUSION: Moderate-to-high dose RET induced stronger, albeit small-magnitude (d = 0.30) and not significantly different reductions in depressive symptom severity compared to low dose SHAM RET. Supported by: Darragh O'Sullivan is funded by the Irish Research Council under grant number GOIPG/2023/4158