Weight Intervention Programs Help Reduce Symptoms of Depression

Maintaining a healthy weight might not always be so simple as it seems. Extra pounds can creep up following holidays and other party events. For overweight and obese individuals, reaching a healthy weight and keeping it can be even more difficult. Now, a recent study published in the American Journal of Public Health, found that exercise intervention programs can help obese women reduce the risk of weight gain and depression.

For the study, researchers examined 185 low-income black women from 25-44. Each of the participants had a body mass index (BMI) of 25 to 35, and received primary care at one of five community health centers in central North Carolina. Researchers randomly listed 91 participants in the intervention weight loss group, called the Shape Program. The remaining 94 participants were placed in the control group.

Those in the exercise program received automated phone calls each week throughout a 12-week-period, documenting their behavioral and weight-loss goals for the future. Part of their program also included a free membership to the YMCA and a monthly phone call session with a personal health coach. Those in the control group received routine care from their primary care doctor.

The beginning of the study showed that 19 percent of the women from the intervention group reported dealing with depression issues, where as 21 percent of the women in the control group did, also. At the end of the 12-month study period, they found that depression rates fell to 11 percent for those in the intervention group and 19 percent in the control one. In fact, at the 18-month mark, only 10 percent of those from the intervention group stated that they were still depressed. Control group rates', however, did not change.

Regardless of the amount of weight lost, researchers found that the program helped ease the women's symptoms of depression, which was not linked to antidepressant use. 

"Interventions that focus on maintaining your weight, not just losing weight, may have more widespread effects," said lead author Dori Steinberg, a research scholar with the Duke Digital Health Science Center, via Medical Xpress. "It is exciting that we improved depression among a population that is severely socioeconomically disadvantaged and has limited access to depression treatment. The reductions we saw in depression are comparable to what is seen with traditional approaches like counseling or medication treatment."