Dancing as treatment for depression

If you’re feeling depressed — and if you’re involved with a sociopath or narcissist, you certainly have reason to be depressed — how do you overcome it? Many people turn to therapy or medication, but research shows that physical exercise may be just as good. Dancing as treatment for depression is particularly effective.

A new study published by the BMJ (formerly British Medical Journal) analyzed multiple previous studies with the objective of identifying the optimal dose and type of exercise for treating major depressive disorder, compared with psychotherapy, antidepressants and control conditions.

“Exercise is an effective treatment for depression, with walking or jogging, yoga, and strength training more effective than other exercises, particularly when intense,” the authors concluded.

Depression — a brain state

“Depression is a brain state and also a pattern of observable behaviors or states of being,” explains Mandy Friedman, LPCC-S, in the Lovefraud podcast, Understanding depression. Symptoms include feeling a lack of motivation, joy and engagement in life. In severe cases, it can lead to thoughts of self-harm.

What happens, Mandy says, is that your brain gets sick. Depression is neurobiological and chemical, she says, not a character flaw. Genetics is often a big factor.

“There are definite things that can make people predisposed,” Mandy says. “If you don’t have a healthy support system, if you’re not getting good sleep, if your options for nutrition are limited. Medical conditions that cause people to feel depressed can be factors as well.”

Meta-analysis of previous studies

The BMJ study is called, Effect of exercise for depression: systematic review and network meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials, by Michael Noetel of the University of Queensland, Australia, and colleagues.

The researchers reviewed 218 previous studies with a total of 14,170 participants. All of the participants were diagnosed with major depressive disorder. All of the studies were randomized controlled trials that included exercise as a treatment for depression. 

Because the study was so large, the authors were able to compare the strengths of various approaches and draw more nuanced conclusions, the authors said.

The study compared exercise to cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) and medication (selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, or SSRIs). It included heavy-duty statistical analysis, and that’s where the findings about dance came in. 

“Compared with active controls, large reductions in depression were found for dance, and moderate reductions for walking or jogging, strength training, mixed aerobic exercises, and tai chi or qigong,” the authors wrote (statistics omitted). 

“Consistent with other meta-analyses, effects were moderate for cognitive behaviour therapy alone and small for SSRIs compared with active controls,” they wrote (statistics omitted). 

In other words, the researchers found that some forms of exercise to have stronger effects than SSRI drugs, and the more vigorous the exercise, the better. 

“Practitioners can expect patients to experience clinically significant effects from walking, running, yoga, qigong, strength training, and mixed aerobic exercise,” they wrote.

Dancing as treatment for depression

Barbara Field, writing on Verywellmind.com, summarized the work of several other researchers who specifically studied the therapeutic benefits of dancing. Some of the benefits that may help people who are dealing with depression include:

• Increase endorphins
• Improves your mood
• Reduces loneliness
• Decreases anxiety and depression
• Decreases rumination
• Improves self-esteem
• Involves social skills
• Reduces pain perception

The article even cited research demonstrating that choreographed dance improves the structure of the brain. In this study, healthy volunteers in their 60s and 70s learned country dancing, with steps that became progressively more challenging. After six months, they had denser white matter in the part of the brain that processes memory. This did not happen with groups of volunteers who walked or did stretching and balance training.

Any type of dance

When you’re feeling depressed, it’s possible that the last thing you want to do is go out to a nightclub. So start easy. Turn on some music that you like and dance in your living room or outside in nature. Or try a dancing video game.

Eventually you may want to take a dance class. This offers multiple benefits — learning specific choreography enhances your brain, as mentioned above. The novelty of doing something new helps you overcome obsession and ruminating. Dance class is also a social activity, so it gets you out among new people with a common interest. 

Dancing as treatment for depression may help you feel better — without medication.

Learn more: Comprehensive 7-part recovery series presented by Mandy Friedman, LPCC-S