By Laurel White
Uncovering whether strength training can help individuals combat depression is at the heart of new UW–Madison research led by a School of Education faculty member.
Jacob Meyer, an assistant professor in the Department of Kinesiology, is leading the four-year, $2.7 million project funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Meyer says there is a critical need to develop new and better treatments for depression.
“We have a lot of evidence of looking at the positive effects of cardiovascular exercise on symptoms of depression — we have a whole lot less about resistance exercise,” Meyer says.
According to NIH, roughly 8% of adults in the United States — about 21 million people — suffered a major depressive episode in 2021, the most recent year of available data. Major depression can result in severe impairments that interfere with or limit one’s ability to carry out major life activities.
Meyer notes therapy and prescription drug-based interventions for major depressive disorder (MDD) have been shown in studies to have limited effectiveness, with usual treatment success reported as low as 29% after a year.
He says the nature of resistance exercise, with its larger-scale indicators of improved physical health, could be the key to bolstering an individual’s sense of accomplishment, well-being, and mental health.
“In resistance exercise, people can see results a lot more easily: lifting one more rep is more easily understandable than running a mile a second faster,” he says.
Research has also shown blood flow in the brain is lower in adults with MDD, and resistance training may be able to improve that flow.
Jill Barnes, an associate professor in the Department of Kinesiology who specializes in the study of brain blood flow and its effects on health, is part of the team that will study this element of the project.
Meyer is also partnering with Simon Goldberg, associate professor in the School of Education’s Department of Counseling Psychology, on the effort. Goldberg will bring his deep expertise in mental health treatment and data analysis to the project. Bruce Barrett, a professor in the Department of Family Medicine and Community Health at the School of Medicine and Public Health, will also bring expertise to the effort.
While a few small trials have shown strong promise for the intervention, Meyer’s study is designed to be the first large-scale test of resistance exercise’s effects on mental health. The study aims to recruit 200 participants, beginning this summer. Participants will engage in a 16-week exercise routine, meeting twice a week, and do interviews with mental health clinicians throughout the process to gauge their progress. There will also be follow-up clinical evaluations several months after the exercise routine is completed.
“This is the first large-scale test as a scientific community to see if resistance exercise can treat depression,” Meyer says. “It could lay the foundation for a new treatment that could reduce the widespread, substantial burden of mood disorders and serious mental illnesses.”
Meyer recently joined the School of Education, coming to campus in fall 2024 from Iowa State University. He is a UW–Madison alumnus, having earned his master’s and doctoral degrees in kinesiology in 2011 and 2015, respectively. He also completed a postdoctoral research fellowship at UW–Madison in the School of Medicine and Public Health’s Department of Family Medicine and Community Health.