NCT06110897

RESISTance Exercise for Depression Trial

Resistance Exercise to Treat Major Depression Via Cerebrovascular Mechanisms: Confirming Efficacy and Informing Precision Medicine

• Status: Recruiting
• Phase: N/A
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 200 (estimated)
• Sponsor: University of Wisconsin, Madison · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: 18 Years – 65 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Not accepted

Summary

Depression is a leading cause of disability worldwide and current treatments are ineffective for many people. This trial will investigate the efficacy of a 16-week high vs low dose resistance exercise training program for the treatment of Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) in 200 adults.

Detailed description

Frontline treatments for major depressive disorder (MDD), including psycho- and pharmacotherapy, have limited effectiveness, and there is a critical need to develop and test novel, efficacious treatments for MDD and simultaneously work to optimize its benefits. Resistance exercise training (RET) is a promising but understudied treatment approach. This trial will investigate the efficacy of RET for treatment of MDD in a 1:1 randomized controlled trial (n=200) of 16 weeks of high vs low progressive RET in adults with DSM-5 diagnosed MDD. Further, this project will explore potential mechanisms leading to symptom improvement, including changes in cerebrovascular function (i.e., cerebral blood velocity and pulsatility) and self-efficacy, while also using supervised machine learning tools to predict depression changes, cerebrovascular changes, and participant adherence. Upon completion, this study will build towards identifying and translating mechanistically driven behavioral treatments to reduce the global burden of mental illness.

Conditions

• Major Depressive Disorder

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
BEHAVIORAL	High Dose Resistance Exercise Training	Progressive resistance exercise training
BEHAVIORAL	Low Dose Resistance Exercise Training Group	Progressive resistance exercise training

Timeline

• Start date: 2024-01-01
• Primary completion: 2028-05-31
• Completion: 2028-05-31
• First posted: 2023-11-01
• Last updated: 2025-10-23

Locations

2 sites across 1 country: United States