O.1.1-8 Impact on health-related quality of life after a concurrent exercise program in adults with treatment resistant depression: TRACE-RMD study

PURPOSE: Treatment-resistant depression (TRD) is defined as those who do not remit to major depressive disorder with pharmacological treatment. TRD is associated with a worse health-related quality of life (QoL). Thus, people with TRD have reported greater disability than those healthy control (HC) in QoL, assessed by the 36-Item Short-Form Health Survey questionnaire (SF-36). Concurrent exercise training (i.e., a combination of aerobic and resistance exercise in the same session) could be an efficient non-pharmacological treatment strategy for improving QoL. Exercise is recommended as a non-pharmacological adjuvant program for patients with TRD. Therefore, this study aimed to determine the effectiveness of a concurrent exercise program on QoL in a TRD population. METHODS: Participants (n = 15, 73.3% women, 57.7±13.7 yr old) with TRD carried out a concurrent exercise program (2 days/week and 12 weeks of intervention). The SF-36 questionnaire was used to assess health-related QoL. At baseline, the TRD population showed lower scores (P ≤ 0.001) in physical function, role-physical, bodily pain, general health, vitality, social functioning, emotional role, mental health, and physical and mental component summaries compared to HC. RESULTS: After 12-week of intervention, general health (↑50.5%), vitality (↑41.2%), social functioning (↑76.4%), and mental component summary (↑24.9%) were increased (P < 0.05). However, there was not a significant (P > 0.05) change increase in physical functioning, role physical, bodily pain, emotional role, mental health, and physical component summary. CONCLUSION: In conclusion, beneficial effects on QoL variables in patients with TRD after concurrent exercise should lead to considering exercise as an adjuvant program in their treatment.