8 Lifestyle Interventions for Major Depression

A recent research synthesis reviews the data on how various lifestyle interventions affect depression, with recommendations for how to best integrate them into treatment.

KEY POINTS

• Lifestyle-related modifications can contribute to clinical depression, both making depression work or helping to prevent or alleviate symptoms.
• There is a lot of advice regarding lifestyle factors, but the evidence-base is surprisingly limited, making decision-making challenging.
• Some factors have stronger data, including physical activity/exercise, work-related factors, sleep, mindfulness-based/relaxation, among others.
• At the end of the day, current lifestyle planning for depression is evidence-informed and personalized due to low overall causal research.

By Grant H. Brenner

We know that lifestyle changes are key to ensuring long-term health and well-being, positively impacting mental and physical health and the synergy between them when included in a comprehensive, individualized treatment plan. It can be hard to separate the signal from the noise when it comes to focusing time and energy on lifestyle-based…